MINNEAPOLIS -- The Twins started Friday’s doubleheader with a bang. Two of them, actually.

The Bomba Squad had been stymied by Tigers left-hander Matthew Boyd in their last matchup, but Minnesota broke the seal rather quickly in the opener of a five-game series with back-to-back homers by Jorge Polanco and Josh Donaldson to start the game. That proved enough support for an economical Randy Dobnak, who tossed five scoreless innings to lead the Twins to a 2-0 victory to open the twin bill.

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“Second at-bat, I thought I put a pretty good at-bat together,” Donaldson said. “[Boyd] made a mistake and I was able to make him pay for it. And that’s all we needed. Dob did a great job. Duff did a great job. Taylor did a great job. That’s the recipe to winning right there. It doesn’t always have to be 10-1; 2-0 counts in the win column.”

Minnesota’s lineup had struggled to hit lefties all season and entered Friday with only nine homers off southpaws in 2020, fourth fewest in the American League -- but having a newly healthy Donaldson in the lineup sure does help.

After Polanco took Boyd an estimated 374 feet into the left-field bleachers for his first career leadoff homer, Donaldson followed with a moonshot into the upper deck in center field above the batter’s eye, rarefied territory typically reserved for the likes of Nelson Cruz and Jim Thome. The blast was estimated by Statcast at 441 feet and gave Donaldson three hits in his first two games back off the injured list.

“I understand my swing, I understand what I need to do, and the biggest part is feeling comfortable building at the plate, because obviously, I've had some movement in my swing and figured out that timing,” Donaldson said. “I felt like I was able to get some good preparation in before. Starting to see a little bit of results on the field for that, and hopefully I continue to trend upward.”

It marked the first time the Twins opened a game with back-to-back homers since May 25, 2016, when Eduardo Núñez and Brian Dozier did so off Kansas City’s Dillon Gee.

Though Dobnak had been hit around by the Tigers in his last start, when he allowed six runs on 12 hits as single after single bled through the infield, the rookie right-hander was back to his typical stingy form on Friday, when he scattered four hits across five shutout frames before he was lifted at only 61 pitches.

Dobnak did struggle with baserunners again in the first three innings due to four more singles, but he benefited from a pair of double plays to help escape both the second and third as he finished his outing by retiring the final eight hitters he faced. Tyler Duffey and Taylor Rogers shut things down in the sixth and seventh to complete the shutout.

“Overall, I think I got ahead more today than I did last time,” Dobnak said. “Still not as much as I would like to be ahead early on with guys. Overall, we had the same game plan for today that we had last time. Different results.”

Dobnak said he still struggled a bit with the command of his bread-and-butter sinker that mysteriously added more depth during the offseason, as he threw 39 strikes and 22 balls among his 61 pitches. He has continued to refine his feel for that pitch and, as he said, hopes to be more in the zone earlier in counts.

Still, Dobnak added another win -- his team-leading sixth -- to his growing resume for the AL Rookie of the Year Award consideration, lowered his ERA to 2.72 in the process and got the Twins back within a game of first place in the AL Central. Under different circumstances, he might have had a shot at the first complete game of his career due to his low pitch count, but Dobnak was at peace with manager Rocco Baldelli’s decision to turn to the relief corps.

“Yeah, it was a tight game and they wanted to go to the big dogs in the ‘pen,” Dobnak said. “Whatever’s going to get us a win, that’s what you’ve got to do.”

If he keeps pitching like this, Dobnak, too, could quickly become one of those “big dogs.”