Mike Lamb’s 2-run single with 2 outs and 2 strikes off of Boston Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon gave the Minnesota Twins a 7-6 walk-off win in front of 25,477 at the Metrodome. With the loss, the Red Sox are now 1-8 in domed stadiums, with the only win coming back on Opening Day against the A’s.

Delmon Young led off the bottom of the 9th with a single. Matt Tolbert sacrificed him over to second. Papelbon then got a big out when Adam Everett popped out to Kevin Youkilis in foul territory. With Carlo Gomez at the plate, Young stole third and Paps ended up walking him. Gomez then stole second base without a throw to put the winning run at second base. Papelbon got the count to 1-2 against Lamb and was dominating him with his fastball but Lamb was able to connect on a splitter to bring home the winning runs. The blown save for Papelbon was his second in-a-row.

Jon Lester got the ball tonight for the Red Sox and threw a lot of pitches early on. He had one inning extended due to yet another E-6 from Julio Lugo. Lester went 5 1/3 innings giving up 8 hits, 5 runs (3 earned) and 1 walk while recording two strikeouts. David Aardsma worked 2/3 of an inning allowing 1 hit. Hideki Okajima gave the Red Sox 2 innings of perfect relief, striking out 1 in the process. His ERA now stands at 0.53.

Dustin Pedroia, Mike Lowell and Kevin Youkilis were all 2-for-5 tonight with Lowell adding two RBIs and Youk added 1. Every Red Sox starter had at least 1 hit on the night.

The Twins touched up Lester right out of the gates. Carlos Gomez led off with a long fly ball that Manny Ramirez caught right at the wall. Brendan Harris followed that with a single and he went to third on a Joe Mauer single. Mauer ended up at second as Ellsbury made a poor choice by throwing to third. Justin Morneau grounded out with Harris scoring on the play. Michael Cuddyer made it 2-0 as his single knocked in Mauer.

After a Mike Lowell groundout to start the 2nd inning, Youk reached on a wild pitch by Twins starter Boof Bonser after striking out. With J.D. Drew at the plate, Youk stole second. He ended up at third after a Drew single. The Captain brought home Youk with a single to cut the lead to 2-1. Tek ended up at second base as the throw from Gomez bounced off of J.D. With the infield back, E-6 grounded out scoring Drew to tie the game at 2. Bonser then walked Ellsbury but got Pedroia to strike out.

Lester was looking good in the 2nd inning as he got the first two outs. Then an Everett double and yet another E-6 error on a Gomez grounder. (interjection from Nick Cafardo here)

Is it getting to the point where you just feel sorry for Julio Lugo?

It seems every ball hit to him is an adventure. You can tell he’s in that ‘hit it anywhere but to me” mode. In the second inning, two outs, Adam Everett at second base after he’d doubled, Carlos Gomez hits a routine grounder to short. To be fair, any shortstop in that situation has to rush because Gomez can beat out routine grounders with his incredible speed. But Lugo fumbled. Pure and simple.

Back to the game. With Brendan Harris at the plate, Gomez stole second and both Everett and Gomez came around to score on Harris’ single to make it 4-2 Twins.

The Twins made it 5-2 in the 4th inning when Gomez knocked in Tolbert with a single.

If there’s one thing about this Red Sox team, it’s the fact that they never say die. Pedroia led off with an infield single and then Bonser walked Big Papi. Manny loaded the bases for Lowell with a single and Lowell delivered with an 2-run double to cut the lead to 5-4. The double chased Bonser from the game and Juan Rincon came into replace. Youk drove in Manny with an RBI groundout to tie the game at 5. It quickly became 6-5 Red Sox when Lowell came into score on a Rincon wild pitch.

The Red Sox had their chances to blow the game open but the Twins bullpen held strong as the Red Sox left a small village of people on the bases during the game (11).

Daisuke Matsuzaka will take the ball tomorrow night for the Red Sox and look to improve upon his 8-walk performance last time out.

Notes and musings:

Red Sox @ Twins 5/9/08 boxscore

This is the 1st time that the Red Sox have played 4 games in a season at the Metrodome since 2000, when they swept a 4-game set, July 3-6.

Manny Ramirez has 27 career homers against the Twins.

The Red Sox are batting .337 (86-255) with 51 runs, 27 doubles, and 11 homers in the last 7 games to raise team average from .278 to .290, the highest in the majors.

Kevin Youkilis has 5 homers and 11 RBI in last 5 games.

In getting his 1,000 K last night, Josh Beckett is the 1st pitcher to record his 1000th strikeout in a Boston uniform since Frank Castillo, May 5, 2002 at Tampa Bay.

Jon Lester has a career major league winning percentage of .765 (13-4) in 35 games/34 starts. Since 1900, that ranks as the 2nd highest career winning percentage in ML history among all pitchers who have at least 25 career starts.

Jacoby Ellsbury and Jed Lowrie are the 1st Red Sox teammates from Oregon prior to September 1 since 1950, when RHP Jim McDonald and INF Johnny Pesky were both on the roster.

The Red Sox streak of 22 consecutive stolen bases ended tonight when J.D. Drew was thrown out trying to steal second. The streak was the longest ever in Red Sox history.