Minnesota Twins unofficial start to postseason starts in Boston
By Chris Schad
Game 1 (Tuesday 6:10 p.m. CT)
Randy Dobnak (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Rick Porcello (12-10, 5.42 ERA)
As part of the Twins’ effort to save their arms, they’ll send Randy Dobnak to the mound for his first career start. Pitching in a hitter’s haven such as Fenway Park is a tough assignment, especially for a rookie that began the season at High-A Fort Myers.
The good news is that Dobnak hasn’t allowed the moment to get too big for him as he’s tossed eight scoreless innings over his major league career. This is not expected to be a long start, however, as the Twins’ main objective is to push Jose Berrios back a day for rest purposes.
His opponent will be someone who has had a long history against the Twins in Rick Porcello. While his overall stats haven’t been too impressive, he did put together one of his best starts of the season against Minnesota on June 17, when he got the win by throwing seven scoreless innings and striking out eight batters.
A player to watch for the Twins in this game is catcher Jason Castro, who should get a start against the right-handed Porcello. Over his career, Castro has seen success against Porcello, going 5-for-13 with a home run and a double.
If Dobnak can get off to a good start and the Twins offense can get to Porcello early (as they’ve scored 26 runs over the first and second inning during this road trip), they might be able to get a key win in the opening game.