MINNEAPOLIS — On Tuesday night at Target Field, a squirrel darted between the legs of Twins outfielder Max Kepler and into the hearts of fans.
It was the second consecutive game that the squirrel made it's way onto the field and stopped the game, but on Tuesday the jolt of excitement helped ignite a Twins offensive explosion.
"It was a 3-3 game, two minutes after he's gone, we're up 7-3," said Twins Communications Manager, Matt Hodson. "The rally squirrel is for real."
As tends to happen these days, the "Rally Squirrel" had it's own Twitter handle before the end of the game, and by Wednesday afternoon, @TwinsSquirrel had more than 2,100 followers.
KARE11 has not been able to verify if the account is managed by the actual rally squirrel, but reporter Kent Erdahl did speak to the photographer responsible for it's profile photo.
"The Twins have had quite the year and I didn't think a squirrel photo would sky rocket like it did," said Twins photographer Brace Hemmelgarn. "It's been everywhere. All over Twitter, news stories, social media. It keeps popping up in a variety of different places."
Hemmelgarn didn't just get a great photo of the little guy, he also had an up close brush with him just before he made his run onto the field.
"It ran right at me and I jumped back and I had a lot of people pointing and laughing at me soon after that," Hemmelgarn said. "I look scared, but I think it was having the time of it's life. I mean, not many people can run on the field and not get tackled by a security guard."
Unfortunately, nobody with the Twins organization has been able to follow the squirrel's whereabouts since his Tuesday heroics.
"We last saw him last night, sneaking under the left-centerfield wall," Hodson said. "My guess is he's lurking, waiting for the right time to come out and give us a couple runs."
The grounds crew for the Twins aren't as big of fans. They set out a live trap near that opening in the outfield wall, just in case he makes a return.
"If we're able to catch our squirrel, we will make sure he's returned safely and peacefully to the urban wild," Hodson said.
Despite those catch and release efforts, the team itself is hoping to he'll return to action on the field.
The Twins lineup card listed a squirrel as a potential reserve for the game on Wednesday afternoon. Unfortunately, the animal never appeared and the team never rallied, losing to the White Sox 4-0.
"It would be nice to call to the bullpen or call to the squirrel," Hodson said. "Get him warming up. Maybe we should put a little squirrel gate (in the wall)."