'It might be in the trash': Sausage switch coming as Twins lose

The Twins were off to a 7-13 start when they began a home series against the Chicago White Sox on April 22. They were struggling at the plate and injuries were piling up, and despite it being so early, it was beginning to sour the season outlook for the defending American League Central champions.

Of course, the season is a marathon, not a sprint. They swept the White Sox in the four-game home series before traveling to Anaheim, Calif., where they swept the Los Angeles Angels in a three-game series. Then the Twins traveled to Chicago for another three-game tilt against the White Sox, and Minnesota swept them once again — that's 10 straight wins.

The Twins pushed that streak up to 12 straight when they won the first two of a three-game series against the Boston Red Sox, matching their second-longest win streak in franchise history.

And it was all thanks to a lucky summer sausage they pulled out in the first series against Chicago.

Well, maybe not all thanks, but we'll get back to the sausage.

Outside of the lucky sausage, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli has been pleased with the contributions from everyone in the clubhouse during the 12-game win streak, which finally came to an end with a 9-2 loss to the Red Sox in the series finale Sunday afternoon at Target Field.

But during the Twins' run, they've gotten strong starts from pitchers, and the bullpen has been strong, too. Players have moved into different spots around the field to accommodate for injuries, and they've stepped up to the challenge. The lineup from top to bottom has been contributing as well in an all-around team effort.

"The whole club contributed to this, and I think it has invigorated the group in a lot of ways," Baldelli said. "That's what you're looking for. It's still very early. I mean, we've seen a lot of — we've seen a couple of big swings in just the way we've been playing over the first little over a month of the season.

"But the way we came back from the start, which wasn't a great start, the way we came back from that shows character. And it's something that you're really looking for in your group. We have great leadership in our clubhouse, guys never really wavered and we ended up playing some really great baseball for a couple weeks."

The Twins are now five games above .500 at 19-14, a far cry from the rough start to the season, and they're also now just 2.5 games back of the Cleveland Guardians for the division lead. More importantly, the win streak helped instill confidence in the group, demonstrating the type of baseball this team has to offer with the season still just getting started. The sky is the limit now.

"We knew it wasn't going to last forever, we knew at some point you lose some games here and there, but I think we played great," Carlos Correa said. "We were very consistent for a long time and hopefully we can start a new one (Monday) and just keep on with the approach, keep on with the same discipline, keep up with the same work and same mentality."

Twins starter Joe Ryan said it's been particularly fun to see the lineup string hits together during the win streak. Correa said the run was "special" and will give the team confidence moving forward.

As for the summer sausage, well, there have been concerns that it would eventually come upon its expiration date. Baldelli has previously mentioned that it hadn't been refrigerated in quite some time.

So what's its fate now that the streak has finally come to an end?

"It might be in the trash by now," Baldelli said shortly after Sunday's loss. "You know honestly, where it belongs. We can always get a new one, which I think we already have a box of them somewhere. The guys throwing the sausage around will be ready to go, trust me."

That just proves a point Ryan Jeffers made just a short time ago: "It's the idea of the sausage. It's the meaning behind the sausage. We're going to learn more about the sausage as the days go by."

The Twins have certainly learned more about the team as they've turned things around.