Griffin Jax: Royce Lewis brings 'spark back' to the Twins

"The energy he has, that he brings to the clubhouse, is contagious."

Jun 10, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Twins pitcher Griffin Jax (22) delivers a pitch against the Colorado Rockies in the eighth inning at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports / Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

Twins reliever Griffin Jax is "glad" the team's celebratory summer sausage is gone.

Minnesota's "rally sausage" first appeared in late April as the Twins were in the midst of a 12-game winning streak. As is the common occurrence in sports, the players got superstitious and kept the sausage around as a good luck item.

"I think they left it somewhere. It got to the point where it was just disgusting. It smelled," Jax told Foul Territory Wednesday when asked about the sausage's demise.

"It was just something that had fermented over the course of a couple months. And it had traveled multiple states. And it had started to seep through the packaging a little bit. And it was hot outside, you know, like we were in the middle of the summer and that thing just started getting nasty," he said.

The 29-year-old righty wasn't just brought on to talk about expired sausages — as fun as that may be. When asked about young star teammate Royce Lewis, Jax said the third baseman "brings a spark back to this lineup and a spark back to this team."

"Regardless of what he does at the plate, just the energy he has, that he brings to the clubhouse, is contagious," Jax said. "He gets everybody on their feet, and then makes sure everybody gives their best every single day."

Despite playing just 19 games this season, Lewis' 10 home runs is third on the team. The 25-year-old has been plagued by injuries throughout his young career but Baseball-Reference has Lewis' career 162-game averages looking like MVP numbers.

"We were actually flying from New York a couple weeks ago, it's 2 a.m., we're going to Pittsburgh and we had a little bit of a delay. Everybody's on the plane and we just lost three straight to New York. We're tired, we want to get into Pittsburgh and go to sleep. And Royce is sitting up on his chair screaming at everybody to start having some fun and let loose a little bit," continued Jax. "That's just the kind of guy he is."