MINNEAPOLIS – As the final batting practice group wrapped up before Tuesday\u2019s game against the Angels, Kyle Farmer signed a few autographs and bantered with three reporters at the end of the dugout, as he often does. But then, before disappearing down the tunnel into the clubhouse, he gestured at a small cardboard box stuffed with thick plastic on top of the bat rack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGuess what\u2019s in there?\u201d Farmer asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The media generally doesn\u2019t like to touch items in the dugout, but that felt like it amounted to an invitation, so upon lifting the mess of plastic \u2026 there it was, in all its glory, back to help its team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Based on the pinkish-brown slime that appeared to coat the old Cloverdale Tangy friend, it looked to be the original one that got the Twins out of their season-opening slump back in April. Whether or not it had been properly stored since then, it looked like it still had that same magic, bringing the bats roaring back to life in a needed 10-5<\/a> rout of the Angels at Target Field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo one can kill it,\u201d manager Rocco Baldelli said. \u201cIt’s probably going to be around for long after all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looks like Brat Summer isn\u2019t over yet — or Summer Sausage Summer, or whatever — as the Twins maintained their three-game lead in the AL Wild Card standings<\/a> over the Tigers and stayed within six games<\/a> of the AL Central-leading Guardians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Given that it was Farmer who had originally brought in the sausage and all its glorious microbiota and Ryan Jeffers who had been the meat\u2019s unofficial travel agent and spokesman back in April, it\u2019s only fair that they were the ones to break the seal in the second inning, when Jeffers lifted a broken-bat RBI single and Farmer crushed a three-run blast for an early lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s when Rally Sausage made its triumphant return, spotted for the first time in months while clutched in Farmer\u2019s right hand as he made his way down the dugout high-five line. When Matt Wallner crushed a Statcast-projected 444-foot solo blast in the third inning, he mimicked taking a bite out of the thrown sausage before Jeffers\u2019 sac fly pushed the Twins to their highest run total since Aug. 27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nobody was willing to fess up to being the one to bring the sausage back into the dugout, and nobody seemed to have much of an idea of where that thing had been gathering dust, and mold, and God only knows what else, for the last four months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One coach noted that he might have seen it in the fridge in the coaches\u2019 locker room, and the name of run production coordinator Danny-David Linahan was brought up in passing, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All that\u2019s known to rookie DaShawn Keirsey Jr., who notched his first big league hit in the eighth inning, is that he watched from the on-deck circle as hitting coach David Popkins pulled out the fabled sausage he\u2019d heard so much about while in Triple-A St. Paul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s just all disgusting and nasty, and my first thought was, \u2018What is that?\u2019\u201d Keirsey said. \u201cI was thinking, \u2018If I get any closer to this, I might get sick.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Twins had scored five or fewer runs in 12 consecutive games, and they hadn\u2019t had a three-homer game as a team since Aug. 24, until Carlos Santana helped the Twins respond to a four-run Angels rally in the fifth with his team-leading 21st homer of the season, a two-run shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the media couldn\u2019t sense any odor upon being confronted by the Rally Sausage in the dugout, the plastic packaging still looked to be intact. But it\u2019s a good thing that the Twins finally seemed to have found some extra wrapping for it, because seemingly nothing had worked to spark the Minnesota offense until this admittedly somewhat silly gambit made its return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But at this point, the Twins will take it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n