Last night should have solely been about Jim Thome. It should have been a pure celebration focused squarely on the fact that a 40-year-old man can step off the disabled list and turn a three-run deficit into a party with two mighty swings of the bat -- one producing a 465-foot blast to right, the other proving that a Twins left-handed hitter can, indeed, hit a home run to left. Instead, of course, it fell apart in an avalanche of all-too-familiar [redacted]: A tandem touted as the best one-two closing punch in baseball (one that makes a combined $18 million-plus this year) couldn't get six outs. The Twins are an absurdly hideous 11-7 when leading after 7 innings, according to Joe C's game story today. Of course, the JoMa NatCap had help coughing up that 7-4 lead from the defense. Trevor Plouffe seems destined to join Jim Hoey as the next Twins player we irreversibly jinxed with a glowing post following a modicum of small sample size success. His eighth-inning misplays set the stage for the ninth inning blown save. And of course Kevin Slowey, who would have been a perfect choice to start the 10th inning, was unavailable -- turning the hypothetical nightmare of his preference to start games into a real problem when Anthony Swarzak took the hill and sealed the team's fate.

Though the Twins can't muster up enough battle-your-tail-off-ness to hold a three-run lead in their first home game after a Hall of Famer's death, when his modern day equivalent belts a pair of two run homers in a heroic return, we still say this: While there is so little to cheer for and so much about which to gripe in a season that already appears lost -- awful stat of the day: the Twins need to go 10-2 in their next 12 games just to reach 25-33, the low-water mark from which they roused themselves to a 71-33 finish in 2006 -- do not forget to celebrate Thome.

If you want to note that Josh Hamilton and Joe Mauer both went down for the count on April 12, but Hamilton homered in his first game back from a broken arm last night while Mauer is still playing the rehab game, that is your business. Just don't let all the sourness sour you on Thome. This guy is something special. If he had been here just a little longer, or if he could pitch the 8th inning, he might even be worthy of his own statue.