Papelbon

MINNEAPOLIS — This time, Jonathan Papelbon “finished” what he started, and the Red Sox had a win, beating the Twins, 5-2, last night at the Metrodome.

Papelbon had blown his previous two save chances in a span of three days, including one that got away from the right-hander the previous night.

In being nicked for two runs in the ninth in a 7-6 setback Friday night, Papelbon said he hadn’t been “finishing” off his pitches, opening the lower half of his body, which led to his pitches having little late life. The result of that was that Papelbon had fanned only one of his last 25 batters, a poor ratio for the Sox’ flamethrower, who had punched out 16 batters in his first eight innings this season.

Last night, Papelbon fanned two in working a scoreless ninth. The only blemish was a seemingly harmless popup that hit a wire near the top of the dome and fell safely to the turf for a single.

Papelbon’s nasty splitter put away Jason Kubel, the first batter he faced. And he blew away pinch-hitter Craig Monroe, ending the game and improving Boston’s record to 4-2 on the 10-game trip.

“The last two outings I wasn’t 100-percent mechanically sound,” Papelbon said. “Tonight I made the adjustment and pounded the strike zone. I needed to finish my pitches through the strike zone and I did, and it was a totally different outcome. Sometimes when you’re on a good run of outings, you feel like you need to do something even better. I was doing that. You just have stay where you are and keep throwing that way. Tonight I was staying over the rubber, staying behind the baseball and not cutting off the life on the ball.”

Dice-K talks the talk

Daisuke Matsuzaka’s English, apparently, is improving.

When asked about a pitch that got away from him and rolled to the plate, Matsuzaka didn’t wait for a translator, saying, “Good changeup, huh?” with a big smile on his face.

He was referring to a 1-and-2 pitch to Joe Mauer in the third. Dice-K went through with his normal delivery, but he lost his grip on the baseball. The ball slipped out of his hands, bounced a few feet in front of the mound and rolled on the artificial turf at about 3 mph all the way to the plate.

Officially, it was called a ball.

Dice-K maintained his grip on his next pitch, blowing a fastball past Mauer’s swing for a strikeout. But the “changeup” was just plain funny.

“That’s the Gyro ball that finally emerged. It got over the plate, just a bit low,” chuckled manager Terry Francona, referring to the mythical pitch Dice-K supposedly brought with him from Japan.

“I didn’t know where to look for the ball,” said catcher Jason Varitek. “I looked up. I looked around. Finally I saw it trickling over the plate. I’d never seen that in my career.”

Lowrie may be Pawtucket bound

Jed Lowrie may very well be on his way back to Pawtucket today.

Alex Cora will be activated and, depending on when the Red Sox think Julio Lugo (mild concussion) may be ready, Lowrie is the likely candidate to be optioned to the PawSox to make room for Cora.

If so, he’ll be going with a memento of his first big-league homer. Lowrie put the barrel of the bat on a breaking pitch from the Twins’ Glen Perkins and lifted it into the left-field seats, snapping a 2-2 tie in the seventh inning. That was part of a 3-for-4 night for the rookie.

A fan caught the ball and traded it to the Sox for a signed Josh Beckett baseball, so Lowrie has the ball for his trophy case.

“I guess a Josh Beckett ball is worth more than my first home-run ball,” said Lowrie with a big smile. “When I rounded first, I didn’t know it was out. None of the umpires made a signal, so I kept going. And when I got to the plate, I had a home run. I kept a pretty straight face until I got home, and then I had to smile.”

He knows he could be sent down today.

“That’s my role,” he said. “There are a lot of good players here and I just have to be ready when they need me.”

Crisp the Crusher

Coco Crisp isn’t your basic home-run hitter, either. But he absolutely crushed a 3-and-1 pitch from Perkins, tying the game at 2-2 in the seventh as the first half of the back-to-back homers with Lowrie.

“That was probably the farthest ball I have ever hit,” said Crisp of the blast, which was estimated at 392 feet.

He said it had been so long between homers — last Sept. 6 — that he didn’t have a good home-run trot.

“The guys were getting on me. They said I was too slow, that I delayed the game for 10 minutes,” joked Crisp. “My beads (in his hair braids) were jumping up and down and my handshake (with third-base coach DeMarlo Hale) has to be smoother. I’ll have to work on that.”

Youk on a tear

Kevin Youkilis’ power surge continues.

The Sox first baseman drilled a solo homer to left field in the second inning last night, giving him five round-trippers in six games on the road trip, and six in his last seven games overall.

He has eight for the season, snapping a tie with Ortiz and Manny Ramirez for the team lead.

The homer was Youkilis’ 21st extra-base hit of the year, tops in the league.

He boosted his total to 22 on a ground-rule double to center in the sixth.

skrasner@projo.com