In 2017, Minnesota Twins All-Star third baseman Miguel Sano when down with a stress reaction to his shin. So Eduardo Escobar filled in at third. He proceeded to belt 10 of his career-high 21 home runs as a fill-in starter.
Speaking of the home runs, Escobar told the Star Tribune, "The 20 home runs are surprising but I'm working hard all year. It's different when you have the opportunity to play every day. I feel like Jesus has blessed me."
Maybe that is because the team chaplain prayed over Escobar's bats. During a trip to San Francisco, he brought his bats with him into the team's chapel service.
Fellow teammate Kyle Gibson told Sports Spectrum, Escy walks in, he's got both his bats; he's been struggling. He walks in, both his bats, crosses them right there in front of the chaplain, the chaplain's just kind of like, 'All right, let's pray.'"
Gibson said, "Escobar goes out and hits a homer and then he just goes on a hot stretch, and it was at a perfect time. ... Then, of course, he had to bring them every week to chapel."
Teammate Brian Dozier added, "We needed a bat bag about a month later for everybody's bats in the chapel."
Jon Ackerman, "Will Minnesota Be the Twins of 2016 (Really Bad) or 2017 (Really Good)?" Sports Spectrum, Spring 2018, p. 44.