Earlier this week on April 5 the Twins beat the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park by a score of 15-6. Matt Shoemaker started his first game in a Twins uniform and went six innings throwing 92 pitches and allowing three hits and one run before manager Rocco Baldelli said that was enough. The Twins had a 15-1 lead at that point and Shoemaker was in line for the win.
Baldelli brought in his long man Randy Dobnak to finish things off and Dobnak did just that going the final three innings. The first two innings were uneventful but the third and final inning was interesting. The ninth inning started as you would like to see with Dobnak retiring the first two batters. But the next hitter Victor Reyes took Dobnak deep. Then he gave up a single, then a double and then a walk to load the bases for former Twins minor league outfielder and Tigers Rule 5 pick-up Akil Baddoo who crushed a Dobnak pitch for a grand slam home run and all of a sudden it was a 15-6 ballgame. No worries, Dobnak retired JaCoby Jones on a groundout and the game was over and the Twins had the 15-6 win.
Shoemaker got his first win as a Twin and Dobnak got a save for his three innings of work. Three inning saves aren’t exactly rare but they don’t happen everyday either. Over the years the Twins have had 181 three or more inning saves since 1961 and Dobnak’s effort here made it number 182. The longest three or more inning save as you might expect has been four innings and that has been done 32 times with the most recent four inning save notched by Devin Smeltzer back in 2019. But back to Dobnak for a moment, oddly enough he was also the last Twins pitcher to have a three inning save and it took place on August 29, 2019 against the White Sox.
Back in the days when three or more inning saves were more common, Twins pitcher Ray Corbin did it seven times in 1973 and Bill Campbell also did it seven times in 1974. In his four years as a Minnesota Twin Bill Campbell did it 15 times, far and away the Twins leader in this category. The American League leader in this type of save since 1961 is Bob Stanley who did it 35 times for the Boston Red Sox between 1977-1988. Now you know the rest of the story about the Twins and three or more inning saves.