Minnesota Twins third baseman Miguel Sano if off to a hot start, and American League pitchers are on notice. He’s been so good, he was just named AL Player of the Week for the week spanning April 24-30.
Sano is hitting a robust .316/.443/.684 through the first month of the season, and took that to another level over the past week, hitting .524/.545/1.000 over five games to lead the Twins to a 4-1 record. Sano had 11 hits over that time frame with three home runs, one double and a total of 11 RBIs.
Heading into Monday’s action, Sano ranked in the following spots statistically among the 184 “qualified” MLB batters:
- Home runs – 7 (tied for 10th)
- Runs scored – 17 (tied for 21st)
- RBIs – 25 (fourth in MLB, first in AL)
- Walk rate – 18.6 percent (fifth, Robbie Grossman is first)
- Isolated power – .367 (seventh)
- Average – .316 (26th)
- On-Base Percentage – .443 (tied for eighth with Mike Trout)
- Slugging Percentage – .684 (seventh)
- wOBA – .466 (seventh)
- wRC+ – 210 (seventh)
- fWAR – 1.5 (tied for eighth)
The Twins open a six-game homestand against Oakland on Tuesday. Here are the probable pitching matchups:
- Sonny Gray vs. Ervin Santana – Tuesday (7:10 p.m. first pitch)
- Kendall Graveman vs. Hector Santiago – Wednesday (7:10 p.m.)
- Jharel Cotton vs. Kyle Gibson – Thursday (12:10 p.m.)
Also of potential interest will be the return of Trevor Plouffe to Target Field for the first time as a visitor. Plouffe is hitting just .207/.275/.366 through his first 24 games with the A’s, and has particularly struggled over his last five games, where he’s just 2-for-17 (.118/.167/.176).
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