The Minnesota Twins continue their hot start to the 2020 season with a 5-2 win against the Pittsburgh Pirates, extending their win streak to 6 games. The win puts the team at a 10-2, the best start to a season in the franchise’s 60-year history.
The story of the game was Ryan Dobnak, the starting pitcher for the Twins who grew up in the Pittsburgh area, and attended around 150 Pirates games at PNC Park as a kid. Making his Pittsburgh “homecoming” as the opposing pitcher was not as he expected, as the 200 friends and family he estimated would have attended, had to watch from home instead, due to there being no fans allowed in stadiums in 2020.
With his parents trying to catch a glimpse of him from the Roberto Clemente bridge close to the stadium, Dobnak threw 6 shutout innings and only allowed 3 hits as he continued his hot start to the season and lowered his ERA to 0.60. The game remained 1-0 until the 9th inning when Max Kepler blew it open with a 3 run shot which proved to be the difference.
The Pirates scored 2 in the bottom of the 9th thanks to a two-out 2 run home run from Josh Bell, but it wasn’t enough as Pittsburgh fell to 2-10, baseball’s worst record. Trevor Williams pitched 7 dominant innings, letting up 1 run on 3 weak hits, but he left the game at 1-0 and suffered his 3rd loss of the season.
