Then came the sixth inning, when anything seemed possible. Matt Wallner doubled off lefthander Ryan Yarbrough, Mickey Gasper singled and Ryan Fitzgerald hit his third career home run, cutting the deficit to 10-6. After an out, Buxton doubled into the left-field corner, and Martin greeted Mark Leiter Jr. by beating out a bunt.

Up came Larnach, with the Twins fans cheering and the Yankee fans (yes, plenty of them in the park) tense. The Twins designated hitter, who had scored a first-inning run on Royce Lewis’ two-out single, took a called strike from Leiter. The second pitch was a sinker, thigh-high and in the middle of the plate. Larnach connected and sent it foul-pole high into the night, 101.3 mph off the bat.

Maybe 102 mph would have done it.

The ball, however, came down on the warning track, and though Buxton tagged up and scored the Twins’ eighth run — one night after they tallied seven against the defending American League champs — the threat was over. Kody Clemens grounded out to end the inning, the Twins went out in order in the seventh and eighth, and Larnach’s ninth-inning home run, his 17th, merely gave the hopeful crowd one last chance to imagine a Redford-running-the-bases movie ending.

Instead, a groundout and a strikeout brought them back to reality, and to the exits.