Randy Dobnak gave up one run on three hits over 5 1/3 innings to pick up his first major league win and Marwin Gonzalez had a two-run double to lead the Minnesota Twins to a 4-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Friday night at Target Field in Minneapolis.
Miguel Sano tripled and drove in a run and Jorge Polanco doubled and scored a run for Minnesota (95-59), which remained four games ahead of the Cleveland Indians (91-63) in the American League Central with eight games remaining.
Dobnak (1-1), signed two years ago out of the United Shore Professional Baseball League (USPBL), a four-team independent league in Michigan, walked two and struck out five. Trevor May struck out the side in the ninth to earn his second save.
Alex Gordon had a double and two RBIs and Ryan McBroom had three hits for Kansas City (56-99), which lost its fourth straight game and for the seventh time in eight outings. Eric Skoglund (0-2) pitched four innings, allowing two runs on three hits to pick up the loss.
Minnesota took a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Mitch Garver led off with a walk, advanced to third on a double by Polanco and scored on a sacrifice fly by Nelson Cruz. One out later, Sano smashed a triple to center to drive in Polanco.
Kansas City cut it to 2-1 in the sixth when Jorge Soler led off with a single, advanced to second on a groundout by Hunter Dozier and then scored on a double by Gordon.
The Twins increased their lead to 4-1 in the bottom of the sixth on Gonzalez's two-out, two-run double into the right field corner, driving in Eddie Rosario, who reached on a fielder's choice, and Sano, who had walked.
Kansas City took advantage of a Sano throwing error on Adalberto Mondesi's grounder to open the eighth to score two unearned runs. Soler followed with a walk and Dozier drove in Mondesi with a single to right but was thrown out at second by Gonzalez as he was trying to stretch it into a double. Gordon then drove in Soler with a groundout.
--Field Level Media
