Miguel Sano finished April with a bang, going 3-for-5 with a 3-run home run and a pair of RBI singles to lead the Twins over the Royals 7-5 Sunday afternoon in Kansas City.
The third baseman has been especially hot over the last four games with 11 hits, 3 homers and 11 RBI. On Monday afternoon, the big bopper was named A.L. Player of the Week.
Congrats to @SanoMiguel for being named the A.L. Player of the Week! pic.twitter.com/x2yvJvvsZ3
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) May 1, 2017
For the month of April he hit .316 with 7 homers and an American League-leading 25 RBI. In fact, Sano is top five in the AL in five key categories.
- 3rd with 7 HR
- 1st with 25 RBI
- 1st with 18 BB
- 3rd with a .685 SLG
- 3rd with a 1.127 OPS
He’s on pace to finish the season batting .316 with 49 homers, 45 doubles, 175 RBI and 127 walks.
¡Pa’ la Calle! ????????????
Miguel Sanó conecta su 7mo HR de la temporada. #MLB ⚾️ #Twinspic.twitter.com/62lH0toPDB— All Sport News (@All_SportNews) May 1, 2017
Only four guys in MLB history have driven in 175 runs in a single season:
- Hack Wilson, 191 RBI in 1930
- Lou Gehrig, 185 RBI in 1931
- Hank Greenberg, 184 RBI in 1937
- Jimmie Foxx, 175 RBI in 1938
Inevitably, it’s pretty much impossible to keep raking like Sano is. For example, in 1998, Juan Gonzalez had 101 RBI through 87 games at the All-Star break and he eventually cooled off and finished with 157 RBI. It’s just really hard to keep going like Sano is.
But he’s still threatening to break a bunch of team records set by Harmon Killebrew nearly 50 years ago when he slugged 49 homers and a drove in 145 runs in 1969. Killebrew also set franchise records with a .606 slugging percentage and 145 walks that season.
Fewest games to reach 50 career homers in Twins history:
219 Miguel Sano
245 Jimmie Hall
274 Justin Morneau
283 Tom Brunansky— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) May 1, 2017
Another team record Sano is on pace to shatter is the strikeout record, which he currently owns. Sano struck out 178 times last season and he’s on pace to whiff 225 times this season.
It’s a good bet that Sano will come back to earth sooner than later, but let’s ride the wave before it crashes.
