Somebody Call Central Casting

If you had pitched last night's Twins game as a Hollywood movie, you would have been laughed out of the restaurant where you were having lunch for proposing such an improbable plot.

Start with a veteran pitcher, set to retire at the end of the season, coming off an injury that some thought had ended his career, who returns to start in front of an adoring home crowd and hurls five solid innings, giving up only one run. Add the team's inability to score a run through eight innings, leaving them down 1-0 heading to the ninth. For extra drama, toss in the opponents loading the bases with no outs in the top of the ninth, threatening to break the game open, only to have the home team escape without giving up a run. Then, this is where it simply gets absurd, have the local boy made good come up with two outs, yes TWO OUTS, in the bottom of the ninth and crack a Roy Hobbsesque game-tying home run. Wrap it up with the home team once again avoiding danger in the top of the 10th, winning the game in the bottom of the inning, and moving into a tie for first place in their division in late-September after trailing by 11 1/2 games in June. C'mon, you expect anyone to buy that?

Suspend your disbelief.