Late Saturday night, after rain, lightning, high winds and perhaps locusts rapidly descended on Target Field, the Twins were one out away from losing for the seventh time in eight games.
They trailed the Giants by two runs in the bottom of the ninth, on a night the Guardians would rally to win and with September looming.
With two outs and one on in the ninth, Luis Arraez walked. Then Carlos Correa drove in a run with a single. Then Jake Cave tied the score with his own RBI single, sending the game into extra innings and toward a Twins victory.
Sunday afternoon, the Twins were down by a run in the fourth when Cave hit a two-run homer. He would hit a two-run double in the fifth, producing four RBI in the Twins' 8-3 victory over San Francisco.
In 16 hours, Cave, a reserve outfielder who has spent most of the season with Class AAA St. Paul, made possible two crucial victories. A couple more weekends like this, and he will be dubbed the Cavior, and all who board the Green Line will be required to wear graying beards and pay lefthanded.
"There's always pressure in those situations," Cave said. "You've just got to try to keep your heartbeat as low as possible. It's not always that easy."
Winning, in modern baseball, takes more than a village. For the Twins, it takes a two-city metropolis linked by public transit.
Cave wasn't the only occasional St. Paul Saint to contribute on Sunday. The Twins used 14 players. Six, including starting pitcher Aaron Sanchez, have spent time this season in St. Paul, and of those six, only one is in the big leagues because he has earned an everyday job: budding star Jose Miranda.