When Scott Diamond and P.J. Walters received major league call-ups in the last week, it likely wouldn’t have taken much for the duo to become fixtures in the Twins rotation for the rest of the season. After all, Twins starters entered Sunday’s game with a league-worst 6.57 ERA.

With quality starts quickly becoming an endangered species at Target Field, Diamond and Walters have provided a much-needed boost for the staff and much-needed rest for the bullpen.

Diamond threw seven shutout innings in a Twins’ 4-3 victory against the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday. That came on the heels of Walters’ Twins debut on Saturday, in which he allowed just two runs on six hits in six innings.

Diamond’s 2012 Twins debut was on Tuesday, when he threw seven scoreless innings, yielding four hits and just a walk.

All told, Diamond and Walters’ stats with the Twins: 3 starts, 20 innings, 2 runs allowed (both earned), 15 hits and just one walk allowed.

Both pitchers had been throwing well at Triple-A Rochester, but I was pretty skeptical when Diamond in particular was called up. Both he and Walters are considered to be in the pitch-to-contact mold that had gotten the Twins into this mess of a season to begin with.

But so far, there has been little contact against the two starters. I know I’ll be watching to see how long they can keep it up.