In the fourth week of the season the Twins had a record of 2-4, winning both games against the struggling Kansas City Royals. The Detroit Series over the weekend can only be described as embarrassing. We didn’t have any great performances to speak of from the Detroit series, but we do have a couple worth mentioning from Kansas City.

Honorable Mention

• Luis Castillo: After returning from 3 days off due to a sore knee, Castillo got off to a slow start, going 0-for-8 in the first two games against the Royals. In the final game he was 3-for-4 with a walk and 2 RBIs. He had 6 hits total during the week has he continued to be the Twins best on-base guy this year, and one of the best in the league this year.
• Ruben Sierra: He hit a pinch-hit RBI single in the 8th inning of Tuesday’s game, and that’s what he was brought here to do. The Twins ended up scoring one more run that inning to win the game 2-1. Unfortunately, Sierra is now on the 15 day DL with a strained biceps muscle and will likely miss considerable time this season. He won’t, however, need season ending surgery.
• Kyle Lohse had a quality start on Tuesday. Ok, maybe he did walk 5 batters, but he was able to work out of jams, and we’ll take what we can get.
• Shannon Stewart: Stewart had 7 hits during the week and was more than welcomed back after missing the prior weekend’s series with a family matter. He didn’t factor into a lot of the Twins scoring, but as a leadoff hitter that’s not really his fault.

Player of the Week: Johan Santana

Johan Santana picked up his first win of the season on Thursday against Kansas City as he also began to look more like the Johan Santana we all know and love. Santana pitched 8 innings, throwing a more reasonable 104 pitches in the outing. He gave up just 3 runs, 2 of which came in his final inning. He gave up 7 hits and 1 walk for a Santana-like WHIP of 1.00. Finally, his strikeout numbers came as he racked up 10 of them in the game. He performance may have had something to do with the team he was pitching against, yet it’s still great to see him get a good start and a win. Surely many more are yet to come.