Randy Dobnak is on a roll right now. He’s made five consecutive starts allowing two or fewer runs with the St. Paul Saints dating back to June 15.
“It’s been a little bit of luck,” Dobnak said, attributing chance to his latest string of success. “I feel like I’m making my pitches a bit better, getting ahead of guys early, and if I get behind in counts, I’m able to get back into them with pitchers’ pitches, rather than a 2-0 fastball type of thing.”
Dobnak has begun to look like the player Minnesota Twins fans became familiar with during his late-season call-up in 2019. That’s because he’s been working on adjusting his sinker to do what it’s supposed to do against hitters – sink.
“I tweaked my sinker a little bit, so it’s sinking a little bit more, which is giving me more confidence to throw it,” said Dobnak. “I feel like if they hit it, chances are it’s going to be a ground ball, kind of like it was in the glory days.”
Dobnak has worked on tweaking his sinker with Saints pitching coach Pete Larson. It’s been something Dobnak has wanted to address since last season because hitters had a .362 batting average on balls in play (BAIBP) against him. This year, it’s down to a .328 BABIP, but the adjustments not only in his sinker but his slider and changeup are working more and more in his favor.
“I think last year when I was just pitching completely shitty. But there were some games where I was making my pitches, and they’re just putting the ball in play and finding holes,” said Dobnak. “That’s just part of the game and being a ground ball pitcher. I guess you could call it unlucky, but I think this year I’ve added a different changeup. My slider is inconsistently consistent with its shape, which gets to work out in my favor a lot.”
“There have been slight adjustments on his sinker it has more depth like we saw in 2019,” Larson said. “His slider and changeup have had really good form. It’s been really nice to see, especially the last four to five outings.”
The first game in Dobnak’s stretch of allowing two or fewer runs was against the Louisville Bats, and Dobank got 17 swings and misses and set a new career-high in strikeouts in a single game with 10. While only one of his sinkers worked as a swing and miss, 10 of them he threw that day landed as called strikes. These are the results Dobnak and Larson wanted to see from this pitch.
“It’s something we’ve talked about and have been working on the last two seasons,” said Larson. “He ended up doing it in Louisville a couple of weeks ago or about a month ago now. He found it on his own and has been able to repeat it. That’s been really good, and now we’re seeing 2019-type numbers from him again.”
“Overall, I’m attacking the zone more, [but] I’m still walking guys, which is annoying,” said Dobnak. “But overall, I’m keeping the ball in the park before today, which also helps out a lot.”
In his last start, former teammate Eddie Rosario stress-tested Dobnak’s pitch-to-contact method. Rosario joined the Gwinnett Stripers in the middle of last week after the Washington Nationals released him. While there were many hitters in the Stripers’ lineup, Dobnak could develop a game plan because he faced them in his previous start. He described Rosario as someone a pitcher reacts to how they hit in the game.
“He’s what I’d call a wild bat,” Dobank said. “If there are pitches that are effectively wild, I think he’s an effectively wild hitter. Because if you get him out on one pitch, you throw the same pitch again next at-bat he’s going to hit it 400 feet. He handles changeups really well, he stays back in the box really well, he has really quick hands, and he can see the ball late and get the barrel through the ball. But he also has a lot of holes in his bat.”
As Dobank has improved his results over the last month, he’s focused on cutting down walks. During this streak of allowing two earned runs or fewer, Dobnak had a career-high five walk outing against the Toledo Mud Hens on June 21. He had three in his most recent start on Sunday.
His walk percentage has gone down slightly from 10.7% last season to 10.3% this season. But where it shines a lot better is his strikeout-to-walk ratio, which was 9.5% in 2023 but has risen to 13.2% in 2024. And Dobnak knows the work he’s put in with his pitches is paying off.
“The sinker is a lot better than it was last year, I’ve kind of figured that out after some time off with the finger, kind of just getting back to it,” said Dobnak. “When it was really good in ‘20 and ‘21, it was much better than most guys’ changeups. My change up this year, it has the most depth of a pitch that I have ever thrown. So it’s something for me to just get used to throwing, knowing how to locate it in the zone when I need to and out of the zone, too.”
Toby Gardenhire has not overlooked the work Dobnak has put into his pitch control. Dobnak knows that his work could earn him a spot with the Twins for the first time since 2021 before the season ends.
“Randy’s been great all year, and we’ll keep him rolling here,” said Gardenhire. “Hopefully, at some point, he’ll get another shot up in the big leagues, but he’s doing a great job.”
