The Twins Are Surging And It Could Be Thanks To Their Lucky Home Run Sausage

Baseball players are some of the most superstitious humans on the planet. So, if keeping a lucky sausage in your dugout helps you win games, then by golly, you keep a lucky sausage in your dugout!

Let me explain.

After a dismal 6-11 start to the season, infielder Kyle Farmer put out a packaged summer sausage in the Minnesota Twins' clubhouse. A community sausage, if you will.

"It was in my locker, and I didn’t want to eat it," he said. "So I put it on the table."

A summer sausage. Unclear if this one is also lucky.

(Getty Images)

But nobody ate it. Instead, hitting coach David Popkins put the sausage in the dugout by the bat rack. Now, catcher Ryan Jeffers throws it at teammates following a big hit, and it’s even come along on road trips.

Since then, Minnesota has won seven-straight games — sweeping the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Angels. The offense is surging too, as the Twins scored five or more runs in each of those seven victories.

"It's bringing us a lot of hits and runs, so I'm all for it," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said.

Still, Baldellie has his reservations.

"I’m slightly concerned as, I’m not even an adult, but slightly concerned as more of an adult than maybe some of the people in the other room, that the package is going to open up," he said. 

"And the thing hasn’t been refrigerated in many days. And there’s no doubt that when that thing opens up, whoever’s touching it is in deep trouble. There’s no doubt in my mind that we are carrying around something that is very, very unhealthy to the human body."

He might have a point. But for consecutive series sweeps and an offense averaging more than eight runs per game, that's a risk you have to take.