Minor-league baseball may be the only sport where there’s no way for a fan to lose. When the weather’s warm and the crowd is genial, the quality of the game can feel almost superfluous. Such are the low-risk rewards of “Bottom of the 9th,” a baseball drama that finds the amiable Joe Manganiello turning his life around as a player on the fictitious Staten Island Empires.

Manganiello plays Sonny Stano, a formidable hitter whose youth was spent in prison after he accidentally killed a man in a street fight. Wracked with guilt and insecurity 20 years later, Sonny is released from prison and plans to re-enter society quietly, leaving baseball behind. But Sonny can’t help attracting attention. His former girlfriend, Angela (a somber Sofía Vergara), notices him at the supermarket, rekindling their romance. Soon, a veteran minor-league coach (Michael Rispoli) seeks Sonny out, offering him a job with the Empires — first as an assistant, then as a player. With a community supporting him in the stands and the dugout, Sonny begins the process of nursing his bruised confidence back to fighting form.