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Matt Quatraro Praises Randy Dobnak In Royals' Loss to AL East Team
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- Matt Quatraro Praises Randy Dobnak In Royals' Loss to AL East Team
(IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect)
The Kansas City Royals' impressive nine-game win streak unfortunately came to an end on Wednesday night when they suffered a 3-0 shutout loss at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays .
Individually, right-hander Randy Dobnak took his second loss as a Royal since being acquired by the team in June via a trade with the Seattle Mariners in exchange for cash considerations.
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Dobnak gave up six hits and three earned runs while fanning five batters through six innings of work, earning kudos from manager Matt Quatraro who noted the 31-year-old's effectiveness in attacking the strike zone and efficiency in generating soft contact.
"Another quality start, I thought he was attacking the zone," Quatraro said in a postgame interview with MLB.com. "The fourth inning there, he got behind those guys and that's when they got some guys on base, but the changeup to [Nathan] Lukes for the home run, other than that it was a clean game for him. He was trying to challenge him the whole time, but a couple of times getting behind like I said."
Although Vladimir Guerrero Jr. advanced all the way to third base during the first inning with an infield single, Dobnak prevented any damage as he forced a flyout from Alejandro Kirk and struck out a pair of hitters in Brett Bateman and George Springer .
He held on in the second as well despite allowing a double by Jesus Sánchez, retiring Kazuma Okamoto and Lukes while convincing Ernie Clement to bite on an 83-mph sweeper out of the zone.
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Nonetheless, Lukes made Dobnak pay for a hanging changeup he threw in the fourth, launching a three-run homer to right center that surged the Blue Jays ahead.
Kansas City attempted a late rally in the eighth as Carter Jensen singled and advanced to third off another hit by Bobby Witt Jr. Nick Loftin would then initiate a final effort in the ninth with a double while also moving to third off an infield single by John Rave.
Still, Toronto reliever Louis Varland weathered through the storm to get Isaac Collins down swinging on a filthy changeup at the bottom of the zone and earn his 30th save of the season.
Even though the Royals fell to 59-75 overall, the club has shown a ton of resiliency this season with back-to-back sweeps over the Athletics and AL Central rival Detroit Tigers .
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Furthermore, they lost three games earlier in the month to the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers within two runs.
As for Dobnak, he has now gone 2-2 on the season while compiling a solid 1.92 ERA and 1.37 WHIP for the Royals. He has also recorded 34 punchouts in 51.2 innings of action.
Kansas City will look to win the series tonight at 7:07 p.m. EDT when Noah Cameron takes the mound against Blue Jays right-hander Spencer Arrighetti .
