The Minnesota Twins scored a 6-5 win over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday, extending the franchise’s longest winning streak since 2008 to nine games.
The White Sox jumped to a 2-0 lead, then retook the lead at 4-2 after the Twins tied the game in the fifth inning. Minnesota then rallied for a 5-4 lead with a two-run eighth before Andrew Benintendi tied the game for the White Sox with a solo home run in the bottom of the inning.
Then the Twins put runners on the corners in the top of the ninth, and a Max Kepler sacrifice fly scored Byron Buxton from third to put the Twins up for good 6-5.
The win extends a dramatic turnaround from a 7-13 start that now has Minnesota at 16-13 and 3.5 games behind the AL Central-leading Cleveland Guardians. The Twins’ eighth win in a row marked their longest winning streak since 2011. The nine-game winning streak is now their longest since they won 10 straight in 2008.
The win streak has coincided with a new tradition in the Minnesota dugout. Summer sausage has become a staple in the dugout this spring and a subject of burgeoning baseball lore. Hitting coach David Popkins brought a sausage to the dugout for the start of another series against the White Sox last week.
The Twins swept that four-game series to start their winning streak, and batters have been tapping the sausage — which remains packaged — for good luck ever since. Here it is in action last week.
With the winning streak alive and well, don’t expect the sausage’s reign to end anytime soon.
