ANAHEIM -- Right-hander Randy Dobnak continues to be a revelation for the Royals.
Acquired in a trade with the Mariners for cash considerations on June 17, Dobnak has a 1.73 ERA over 41 2/3 innings to start his Royals tenure.
On Saturday night, Dobnak twirled 5 2/3 scoreless innings, while allowing four hits, walking two and tying a career-high six strikeouts in the Royals’ 1-0 loss at Angel Stadium.
“I thought I threw it pretty well,” Dobnak said. “Kind of mixed and matched my pitches. Made some good pitches when I needed to, and the defense behind me was great.”
Dobnak was a strike-one machine, landing the first pitch for a strike in 70% of the batters he faced. He primarily went to the sinker for the first pitch, using it 10 times, eight for strikes.
“First-pitch strike is probably the most important pitch you throw every game,” Dobnak said. “Just to get ahead of guys, it sets up the whole at-bat going forward.”
The changeup was also a difference-maker for Dobnak. Despite only throwing it in the strike zone 24% of the time, Dobnak’s changeup was still a strike at a 62% clip because of his ability to get hitters to chase out of the zone.
Angels hitters whiffed at Dobnak’s changeup 44% of the time, as well.
“That felt pretty good, starting out in the bullpen pregame,” Dobnak said. “It kind of just carried it into the game. And sometimes when I have that pitch kind of going like that, I can pretty much spam it.”
Dobnak ran into some trouble in the second inning when the Angels grinded him for some long at-bats. Moisés Ballesteros drew an eight-pitch walk to lead off the inning, and reached third base on Adam Frazier’s two-strike double with two outs.
Dobnak got Tyler Heineman to ground out on the first pitch to end a 24-pitch inning, and he cruised from there.
“Nothing changes with him,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “He just continues to throw the sinker; his changeup was pretty good tonight. They made him work earlier. A lot of full counts, some foul balls in there. Maybe his command was just a tick off, but he keeps coming after him.”
After striking out Mike Trout to begin the sixth inning, Dobnak allowed a single and a walk to put the pressure back on. He got a flyout on the next batter, but with 93 pitches on the night, the Royals went to the bullpen.
“I think just making better pitches with two strikes,” Dobnak said as to why he was able to strike out more batters in this outing. “They're a free-swinging team. There were some pretty ugly swings on some of the pitches. I was just getting ahead and making a good put-away pitch.”
Dobnak now has a 1.75 ERA in six starts since being moved to the Royals’ starting rotation.
In the eighth, the Royals caught a tough break when a sharply grounded ball in the three-four hole kicked off the glove of a diving Jac Caglianone and into right field to allow Jose Siri to score the game’s lone run.
That run was all that was needed, as the Royals’ bats had no answers for the Angels’ pitching.
Left-hander Reid Detmers dominated for eight scoreless innings with 11 strikeouts and only two hits allowed.
Caglianone and Michael Massey’s hits off Detmers were the only hits the Royals could muster. Caglianone’s single in the fourth inning extended his hitting streak to 13 games.
Then in the ninth, right-handed flamethrower Ben Joyce tossed a one-two-three inning, while reaching 104 mph three times.
The Royals will look to take the series and end the road trip on a high note in Sunday’s rubber match.