Week six was a pretty good week for the Twins. Last week everyone was writing off the Twins and concentrating on the upcoming Lynx basketball season (ok, not really). Now people are cautiously talking about a run for the playoffs. The bats are the big reason for the turnaround, but anyone who’s watched Twins baseball the past 4 years knows that the pitching will need to come around if these team wants to succeed.

Honorable Mention

• Michael Cuddyer: Cuddy won the RF position and hit like he was paid on a per double basis. He hit 6 doubles during the week including a 3 double day in Wednesday’s 15-5 routing of the Rangers. He also got a little help from the umpiring crew with his Saturday night hit-by-pitch-while-swinging.
• Torii Hunter: Hunter started out the week strong and ended it with 5 RBIs and 5 runs scored. Hunter is a streaky player though and in the last few games of the week it seemed that Hunter was tailing off. At least his defense doesn’t slump.
• Shannon Stewart: Shannon missed a couple games with his recurring foot problems, but he was back for the Chicago Series and he was hitting the ball. He was 3-for-4 in Sundays bizzaro game including two first inning singles. There’s a strong argument for putting Castillo in the leadoff spot, but with the way Stewart’s been hitting I’m not going to put up much fuss.
• Rondell White: White has a 10 game hitting streak going and although most of those games were 1-for-4 efforts he did have a couple 2 hit nights this past week and hit 3 doubles. Still no homers, but at least his average is slowly creeping upwards.
• Johan Santana: Santana won his 4th straight game after starting out the season 0-3. He had a big 10 strikeout effort while virtually shutting down the White Sox in the series opener on Friday night. Johan is in midseason form and I don’t think we’ll see another Player of the week list without his name being mentioned.

Player of the Week: Luis Castillo

Castillo had two 3-hit nights against the White Sox as he continues to get on base any and every way possible. It’s amazing that this little #2 hitter is third on the team with 20 RBIs as well. He’s been a major catalyst for this offense all year long. This week included a 2-run homerun by Castillo, a Mark Beurhle error on Castillo double-play ball and a great catch in the first inning of Sunday’s game that surely saved a run or two for Silva. He did bunt into a triple play, but we’ll try to forget that.