South Park's Randy Dobnak, Twins hand Pirates seventh consecutive loss

With their beleaguered bullpen suffering another blow, the Pittsburgh Pirates needed relief pitching from a starter.

Trevor Williams delivered.

But their bats and bullpen didn’t.

Williams allowed one run in seven innings — the most pitched by any Pirates starter this season — but the relievers didn’t return the favor in a 5-2 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday night at PNC Park.

Geoff Hartlieb and Dovydas Neverauskas combined to allow four runs in the ninth inning, three coming on Max Kepler’s two-out homer off Neverauskas to right-center as the Pirates (2-10) have now lost seven consecutive games.

Despite taking the loss, Williams (0-3) had a strong outing. He allowed three hits and one walk while striking out five on 98 pitches, working both effectively and efficiently.

“Wow, he was really good,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “He gave us the start we needed. Seven strong innings, something we really needed for our bullpen. I thought he was really good. As we’ve talked about the last couple nights, I think that’s probably one of the better lineups in baseball — if not the best lineup in baseball. To be able to execute pitches like he did, it was really good.”

The game marked a happy homecoming for Twins right-hander Randy Dobnak (2-1), a South Park native who kept the Pirates scoreless on three hits through six innings. Two of those were infield singles, the other a double to left by Josh Bell. The Pirates first baseman went 3 for 4, hitting a two-out, two-run homer off Jorge Alcala in the ninth.

“He was peppering the bottom of the zone,” Bell said of Dobnak. “It seemed like in my first at-bat, balls that I would probably never swing at were clipping the bottom of the zone. If you have that pitch working for you, it’s definitely gonna be quick baseball. So, lot of soft contact. … He made good pitches when he needed to.”

The Pirates were dealt a big blow when reliever Nick Burdi was placed on the 45-day injured list with an elbow injury, effectively ending his season. Burdi became the bullpen’s latest casualty, joining Michael Feliz (forearm). They also are without closer Keone Kela, who has been cleared, and relievers Kyle Crick and Clay Holmes.

“When I heard the news about Nick man, it’s crushing,” Williams said of Burdi, who has endured Tommy John and neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome surgeries. “For what he’s gone through and what he’s done to get back in a big league uniform on the field, the amount of work that he puts in in his craft, to hear that, was crushing. … As a group of guys, we’re going to have to pick each other up. We know we need to do that.”

Williams allowed his only run in the second, when he hit leadoff batter Jake Cave with a pitch. Cave advanced to second on a groundout, then scored on an overturned call. With two outs, Marwin Gonzalez hit a bloop that third baseman Erik Gonzalez chased into shallow left field but couldn’t track down. Third-base umpire Jose Navas ruled it foul, but replays showed the ball bounced on the third-base line. Cave scored, and Gonzalez was awarded an RBI single that gave the Twins a 1-0 lead.

Williams didn’t give up another hit until the Luis Arraez doubled in the seventh. But Williams got Mitch Garver swinging for the final out. In the eighth, however, Hartlieb got into — and out of — a bases-loaded jam. He walked Ehire Drianza, then gave up a two-out single to Jorge Polanco that Bryan Reynolds misplayed for an error in left. With runners on second and third, Hartlieb walked Nelson Cruz to load the bases but got Eddie Rosario to ground out and end the inning.

Hartlieb got into trouble in the ninth, giving up a leadoff double to Byron Buxton, and was pulled for Neverauskas after walking Garver. But Marwin Gonzalez hit through a defensive shift, driving in Buxton for a 2-0 lead. Neverauskas then struck out Ehire Adrianza looking but gave up a three-run homer to Kepler to make it 5-0.

Williams said playing the Twins the previous two nights gave him an idea of how to attack the strike zone, a game plan that worked mostly to his advantage and allowed him to be effective.

“You tip your hat to Dobnak as well because he was doing the same thing,” Williams said. “When two pitchers get rolling like that, it makes for a fun pitching matchup. To be on the other size of that, both guys are working fast, it’s ideal.”