MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The lucky home run sausage returned safely to Minnesota with the Twins and their winning streak.
After hitting coach David Popkins started the superstition last week, taking an unopened summer sausage from a table in the clubhouse and encouraging his players to touch it before their at-bats, the Twins casually followed up with a flurry of big hits.
Edouard Julien and ryan jeffers hit consecutive home runs in the sixth inning of the April 24 game at Target Field, and then Carlos Santana went deep in the eighth, Jeffers actually threw the sausage to the first baseman when he returned to the dugout. From there, the ritual went viral. But not bacterial, they hope.
The Twins wisely took the sausage on the road, putting it in a double-sealed plastic bag and stuffing it into a shoe. They won all six games, a first for the franchise on a trip that length, and went on a 10-game winning streak in their Friday game against Boston.
Jeffers, wearing a “Home Run Sausage” navy blue t-shirt which features a salami-shaped slugger swinging for the fences, seemed coy in the clubhouse before the game when asked about the whereabouts of the cured meat.
There was a reason for that, coach Rocco Baldelli said.
“It’s in the refrigerator, in the trainers’ room. We keep it away from the players until the last possible second, when the game starts,” said Baldelli, who had another, supposedly fresher, summer sausage on his office desk.
The original and now famous sausage was part of a baby gift package for the infielder kyle farmer from Cloverdale Foods, which supplies the official bacon of the Twins and Target Field. (Sheboygan Sausage, for the record, has the official hot dogs and sausages.)
The farmer and his family were previously part of a promotion for a Cloverdale breakfast sandwich, and he and his wife welcomed their second child earlier this year.
“As huge baseball fans, we really understand and respect the elements of superstition and luck,” said Cloverdale Vice President of Marketing Leigh Milander. “The belief that our Cloverdale Tangy Summer Sausage is somehow magically influencing successes is a great honor.”
The Twins are no strangers to unique home run celebrations. Last season, they brought a fishing vest and a toy fishing rod to the shelter, a nod to the state’s 10,000 lakes.
This version was by their side when they completed that four-game sweep of the white socktotaled 32 runs and 45 hits for win three in a row against the Los Angeles Angels and then recorded a three-game sweep over the White Sox in chicago.
“The season is too tiring and baseball is too difficult a sport to not have fun every once in a while, right?” Jeffers said.
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Associated Press freelance writer Sarah Effress in Chicago contributed.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Dave Campbell, Associated Press
