Minnesota Twins Player of the Week: Sano powers his way to the top
Big weeks lands young slugger as Minnesota Twins Player of the Week
It was a rough day on Sunday for our Minnesota Twins Player of the Week but ultimately one that that still saw him come through in the clutch.
After hitting three home runs in seven games, Puckett’s Pond picks outfielder Miguel Sano for his big week.
Sano had a modest six-game hitting streak come to an end on Saturday, however prior to the game, Sano had 11 hits, three homers and five RBI’s.
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Perhaps his biggest hit of the week came against the Washington Nationals on Sunday when his single to centerfield drove in a run in the 15th inning that gave the Twins a 5-4 lead. The bullpen, however, squandered the lead for the second time in the game and ultimately the Twins lost in 16 innings.
Sano’s first home run came during Monday’s victory over the Milwaukee Brewers as he slammed it into the bullpen in left-center field.
His next bomb came during Thursday’s 8-1 win in the series finale against Milwaukee. His last came during Friday’s 8-4 loss in Washington.
Defensively, there was a key error that helped the Brewers pick up a win on Tuesday. The error was Sano’s first of the season and it really came as no big surprise as early struggles in the field were to be expected.
But really, Sano isn’t on the team to be a defensive catalyst now is he?
It’s been encouraging to see him at least start to put things together and it’s really not a coincidence that the offense is starting to get some life injected into it because of it.
Guys like Sano, Brian Dozier, Eddie Rosario, Trevor Plouffe and Byung Ho Park have all slowly began to find their groove.
But with Plouffe now out with injury, the Twins will be looking to the likes of the Sano to come up big in his absence.
Plouffe was hitting very well prior to his injury and even bumped his average all the way up to over .300.
Again, hopefully this is a sign of things to come for Sano and the Twins. Unfortunately, Sano and the rest of the Twins have continued to struggle with strikeouts.
Sano fanned 12 times total over the course of this week including nine times against the Nationals, giving him a team-leading 31 strikeouts.
Still, this was expected heading into the season. We knew after the sample size from last season that Sano would be a big presence in the lineup with his power and ability to change the outlook of a game with a single at-bat.
We also knew he was going to strike out and from the way it looks he may be headed to the 200 strikeout plateau.
To put that into perspective, Sano may in a span of a season-and-a-half equal the strikeout total Joe Mauer has had over the span of three seasons.
But enough with the negative, as long as Sano can continue to turn around his fortunes, the Twins will find success.
It’s still really early to go into panic mode and maybe, just maybe, May will be a repeat of last season.
If so, Sano will be a big part of that success.