Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Randy Dobnak throws to the Minnesota Twins in the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, July 29, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Randy Dobnak pitched seven scoreless innings for his first major league victory in five years as the Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins 4-0 on Wednesday night.

Dobnak (1-0) gave up four hits and a walk while striking out four. He had three 1-2-3 innings and no runner advanced past second base.

Dobnak hadn’t won a game in the big leagues since May 21, 2021, when he was with the Twins. He made 21 starts for Minnesota between 2019 and 2021, then spent most of the next four seasons pitching for Triple-A St. Paul before the Twins sent him to Detroit at last year’s trade deadline.

Tyler Tolbert doubled and homered and Salvador Perez had two hits, including his first triple since 2022.

Twins starter Joe Ryan (6-7), pitching for the first time since he tied a major league record by allowing six home runs in a loss to the Guardians on July 20, allowed four runs on eight hits with no walks and four strikeouts over six innings.

Ryan’s turn in the rotation was pushed back due to arm fatigue

Tolbert led off the third inning with a line drive that carried into the bullpen in left-center to open the scoring.

The Royals doubled their lead in the fourth when Perez tripled and scored on Nick Loftin’s sacrifice fly. Kansas City made it 4-0 in the fifth as Carter Jensen’s double and Jac Caglianone’s base hit each drove in a run.

Up next

Minnesota RHP Bailey Ober (7-3, 4.56 ERA) was set to start on Thursday against LHP Noah Cameron (5-8, 4.93) in the series finale.