Dobnak strong, bullpen labors late in loss

As Rocco Baldelli tells the story, when he informed Randy Dobnak that the 25-year-old right-hander would be making a spot start in Saturday’s game against the White Sox, the response was, as usual, simple and unassuming.

“OK,” said the always matter-of-fact Dobnak. “That sounds good.”

• Box score

No big deal for the adaptable Dobnak, who stepped in on short notice in place of Rich Hill and delivered four solid innings of one-run ball at Guaranteed Rate Field on Saturday, once again showcasing the versatile effectiveness that proved critical down the stretch for the Twins last season. That outing was spoiled, though, by a dominant Dallas Keuchel and a rough performance by Minnesota's bullpen, which allowed five homers in a 10-3 loss to Chicago.

• Notes: Bullpen strategy; Hill feeling good

“Today, we didn't make the pitches that we needed to make,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Obviously, there were some home runs, there was some action with two outs where we probably could have gotten through an inning, and we weren’t able to get through. ... You have to make those pitches. We weren’t able to do it tonight, and weren't able to stay close enough to make it a game."

The undrafted Dobnak came out of nowhere last season in a meteoric rise that began in Class A Advanced Fort Myers and ended at Yankee Stadium as the Twins’ starting pitcher in Game 2 of the American League Division Series. Along the way, he posted a 1.59 ERA and was named the organization’s Minor League Pitcher of the Year.

His first test of the 2020 campaign was, by most accounts, a success. Though he allowed a third-inning run on a Yoán Moncada double and dealt with some traffic in the fourth, Dobnak's sinker was heavy and his offspeed pitches had good life as he threw 51 of his 73 pitches for strikes. Whether as a long reliever or as a starter, the sinkerballer and former Uber driver with the big mustache is once again expected to figure prominently into the Twins’ plans this year -- even if he only hears about those plans one day in advance.

“I don't let that stuff affect me,” Dobnak said. “Rocco told me [about the start], and I was excited. 'OK, I'm ready to start.' But for me, I do each day the same way. I've been through that a little bit, finding out the night before. 'Hey, you're starting tomorrow. Good luck.' But I don't really take it as anything. ... I'm pretty easygoing and that's just the way it is.”

Though Dobnak kept Minnesota in the game and Nelson Cruz cranked a three-run blast in the sixth inning, the Twins' bullpen followed up a stingy performance on Friday with a forgettable one on Saturday, as Zack Littell coughed up three homers and Devin Smeltzer also yielded a pair to the newly reinforced White Sox offense, which showed that it could have more than enough firepower to keep up with the Bomba Squad’s output in this 60-game season.

Littell allowed just four homers during his entire 2019 season, and he said his stuff actually felt quite good on Saturday, but three of the first six White Sox hitters he faced on Saturday took him deep, starting with a solo shot by Leury García and quickly followed by back-to-back blasts from Edwin Encarnación and Eloy Jiménez.

Smeltzer had been similarly effective in big spots last year, when he pitched to a 3.86 ERA during the regular season, but he was tagged for five runs on six hits over two frames, with the majority of the damage coming on a solo blast by James McCann and a three-run dinger by García that opened up the game for the White Sox.

The stuff appears to be there for all of these guys; it just comes down to execution. The White Sox offense showed on Saturday that the margin for error has grown slimmer.

“When you’re facing dangerous hitters and your stuff is right around where you need it to be, it just comes down to making the pitch that you want to,” Baldelli said. “I’m sure we’ll see some guys that maybe don’t quite have the feel that they wish they had, but you still find a way to get it done, and we’ll see our guys do that. I have no doubt about it.

“We saw some of it yesterday. We saw some of it today, but ultimately, as we play more games and get more innings under our belt, I think we’re going to see those adjustments made, and we want them sooner [rather] than later.”