Papelbon

MINNEAPOLIS — Kevin Youkilis’ power surge continues.

The Sox first baseman drilled a solo homer to left field in the second inning last night against the Minnesota Twins, 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 David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez for the team lead.

As manager Terry Francona has pointed out on the trip, one of the impressive aspects of Youkilis’ homers recently is that he is not swinging for the fences or trying to pull everything. The homers are coming in the context of his normal approach to the ball and his ability to hit the ball where it is pitched.

For example, in Friday night’s game, Youkilis went with a pitch that was tailing away from him and banged it off the baggy in right field for a single. And when a pitcher has come inside on him, as left-hander Glen Perkins did with a thigh-high breaking ball in the second inning last night, Youkilis has been able to stay balanced and drive it to left.

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.

The old groundball pitch

Talk about your changeups.

Daisuke Matsuzka wound up, and went through with his normal delivery on a 1-and-2 pitch to Joe Mauer in the third inning. He lost his grip on the baseball, though. The ball slipped out of his hands, bounced a few feet in front of the mound and rolled on the artificial turf at about three 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.

Papelbon to work on delivery

Jonathan Papelbon is supposed to be a power pitcher, able to punch out any opposing hitter, even if he tells them what he’s throwing. That’s how dominant his stuff can be.

Heading into this season he had fanned 193 in only 160 2/3 innings. And he began this season with 16 whiffs in only eight innings.

But lately, Papelbon hasn’t been nearly so dominant.

Of the last 25 batters he has faced, Papelbon has only one strikeout.

The opposition is putting the bat on the ball, and while they aren’t exactly mashing it, any time a ball is put in play it can be trouble for the defense. That has been the case in Papelbon’s two blown saves in three days, one in Detroit last Wednesday and then in Minnesota on Friday night.

Placido Polanco’s broken-bat single delivered the Tigers’ winning run with two outs in the ninth and Mike Lamb’s opposite-field blooper with two outs in the ninth produced a dramatic win for the Twins.

Papelbon’s radar-gun readings are fine, but he said he’s not “finishing” his pitches. Pitching coach John Farrell explained the problem as Papelbon opening up the lower half of his body at times which keeps him from throwing on a downward plane, causing his pitches to flatten out.

In short, there is no late life on his pitches, something that translates from swings and misses to the opposition being able to get some wood on the ball.

Papelbon, who had gone 10-for-10 in save chances before the two blown saves this week, was stunned by Friday night’s failure and vowed to work on his mechanics. Overall he has fanned 21 in 17 2/3 innings this season.

Drew just getting a breather

J.D. Drew was given last night off from the starting lineup, partially because Francona wants to make sure everyone gets a day off here and there, and also because the Twins were starting Perkins, a left-hander.

That gave Francona an opportunity to have his two outfield speedsters –– Jacoby Ellsbury and Coco Crisp –– both in the lineup on the speedy Metrodome turf.

Ellsbury started in right and Crisp, a switch-hitter, started in center.

That move paid off when Ellsbury ran down a drive into the right-center gap by Carlos Gomez in the fourth.

It looked even better when Crisp crushed a homer to left leading off the seventh, tying the game at 2-2.

Drew was hitting .319 (6-for-19) on the trip, but had only one extra-base hit (a double) and one RBI. He also had fanned seven times in the last four games.

Coming up; going down

Two roster moves will be made today.

Alex Cora and Sean Casey are expected to come off the disabled list and join the Red Sox for tonight’s ESPN game at the Metrodome. Jed Lowrie and Craig Hansen would seem to be the most likely roster casualty candidates because they have options. If shortstop Julio Lugo has a more serious concussion than is originally thought, though, that could change the nature of the transactions.

Around the bases …

Curt Schilling played catch again today from 60 feet, or maybe a few feet longer with some throws. He said he made roughly 40 throws and will do the same on Monday. … Lowrie’s opposite-field double to right snapped an 0-for-11 skid. … The homers by Crisp and Lowrie were back-to-back, the second time this season the Sox have hit consecutive homers.

skrasner@projo.com