The Minnesota Twins defeated the Chicago White Sox 6-5 on Tuesday, extending the franchise's longest winning streak since 2008 to nine games.
The White Sox jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but the Twins tied the game in the fifth inning and regained the lead at 4-2. Minnesota then scored its eighth run, a two-run run, to regain a 5-4 lead, and Andrew Benintendi hit a solo home run in the bottom of the inning to tie the score for the White Sox.
The Twins then put runners on the corners in the top of the 9th inning, and Byron Buxton from third base scored on Max Kepler's sacrifice fly to give the Twins a 6-5 lead.
With this victory, Minnesota, which started with 7 wins and 13 losses, improved to 16 wins and 13 losses, a dramatic turnaround that left them 3.5 games behind the American League Central Division leaders, the Cleveland Guardians. The Twins' eight consecutive wins are their longest winning streak since 2011. The nine consecutive wins were the longest since 2008, when they had 10 consecutive wins.
This winning streak coincided with the creation of a new tradition in the Minnesota dugout. Summer sausage has become a dugout staple this spring and a rapidly expanding subject of baseball lore. Hitting coach David Popkins brought sausages to the dugout for the start of another series against the White Sox last week.
The Twins started their winning streak by winning all four of those games, and ever since then, batters have been pounding the still-wrapped sausages for good luck. This is a look at last week's activities.
The winning streak is still alive and well, so don't expect Sausage's reign to end anytime soon.
