Randy Dobnak threw seven stellar innings against his former team and Tyler Tolbert homered on Wednesday to help the Kansas City Royals post a 4-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins in Minneapolis.
Dobnak (1-0), who appeared in 39 games (21 starts) with the Twins from 2019-25 and was traded away on July 28 of last year, allowed four hits while striking out four and walking one. In just his fifth outing (third start) of the year, Dobnak picked up his first win since May 2021.
Tolbert, Nick Loftin and Jac Caglianone each had two hits and an RBI for the Royals, who improved to 8-4 since the All-Star break.
After seeing his spot in the rotation skipped last time due to arm fatigue, Joe Ryan (6-7) allowed four runs on eight hits across six innings, striking out four and walking none for the Twins, who had won three straight games and five of their last six.
Tolbert began the third inning with his third home run of the season, a 404-foot blast to left-center which gave the Royals a 1-0 advantage.
In the fourth, Salvador Perez hit just the 12th triple of his major league career and first since 2022 to begin the frame. Two batters later, Kansas City doubled the margin on Loftin’s sacrifice fly.
The Royals tacked on again in the fifth. Josh Rojas’ leadoff single was followed with Tolbert’s sacrifice bunt and Carter Jensen’s RBI double to left, making it 3-0. Caglianone’s run-scoring infield single later in the inning extended the lead to 4-0.
Kendry Rojas entered in relief in the seventh for Minnesota, tossing three scoreless frames.
Dobnak retired eight of the final nine batters he faced, including three in order in a perfect seventh inning.
Daniel Lynch IV worked around Austin Martin’s one-out single in the eighth to preserve Kansas City’s four-run lead.
Steven Cruz needed just six pitches in the bottom of the ninth to close out the win.
