FORT MYERS, Fla. — David Ortiz hit a three-run home run and Josh Reddick hit a two-run shot that led the Boston Red Sox over the Minnesota Twins 7-6 today in the second of three straight games between the teams.

Daisuke Matsuzaka allowed one run in two innings — on a Jason Kubel homer in the first. He struck out one and walked one, throwing 14 of 25 pitches for strikes.

Twins starter Nick Blackburn gave up two hits in two scoreless innings, throwing 18 of 28 pitches for strikes.

Luke Hughes hit a two-run homer in the third against Boston knuckleballer Tim Wakefield.

FORT MYERS, Fla. – Carl Pavano worked two scoreless innings, giving up one hit with two strikeouts, and the Minnesota Twins beat the Boston Red 8-4 on Sunday night.”I felt good as far as body and mind and arm,” said Pavano, who led the Twins with 17 wins in 2010.Josh Beckett started for the Red Sox, going two innings and giving up one run on two hits.”I thought (he) threw a couple fastballs in the second inning up-middle,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “But other than that he was down and pretty good.”In the second inning, first baseman Chris Parmelee, the Twins No. 1 pick in the 2006 draft, doubled and scored on Jason Repko’s triple to right field.”I felt like I was rushing a little bit,” Beckett said. “There’s some positives there. I wanted to get some groundballs. That means you’re keeping the ball down, and I did that. So, it was good.”The Twins added four runs in the fifth. Red Sox left-hander Hideki Okajima opened the inning with consecutive singles to Parmelee, Repko, and Alexi Casilla before Joe Benson’s triple. Tsuyoshi Nishioka’s single then drove in Benson, giving the Twins a five-run lead.Nishioka, who batted second and played second base, is entering his first season in the major leagues after playing seven seasons with the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan. In the first play of the game, he threw out Boston leadoff batter Darnell McDonald.”‘Nishi’ made I think three great plays out there. Not easy plays,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire. “The field was wet. The ball was skipping pretty good, and he made them look pretty doggone easy.”Nishioka went 1 for 3, with an RBI.”I watched him run down the line, and he can fly,” Gardenhire said. “We know he can run, but he can fly. He was flying, and that’s kind of what we like. We like to run the balls out … That’s a feel-good for us because we like the hustle and he was flying.”The Red Sox cut the lead in the eighth, on Lars Anderson’s solo home run. Daniel Nava, who singled, scored on Oscar Tejeda’s single, with Tejeda taking third on left fielder Chase Lambin’s throwing error. Josh Reddick’s single scored Tejeda.Boston’s Mark Wagner hit a solo homer in the top of the ninth to make it 8-4.Mike Cameron, who missed all but 48 games in 2010 with a lower abdominal strain, went 1 for 3 with a stolen base, after having no steals last season.”(Cameron) runs down the line, his stride looks good,” Francona said. “That was the most exciting thing of the night for me.”

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FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) – Carl Pavano worked two scoreless innings, giving up one hit with two strikeouts, and the Minnesota Twins beat the Boston Red 8-4 on Sunday night.

“I felt good as far as body and mind and arm,” said Pavano, who led the Twins with 17 wins in 2010.

Josh Beckett started for the Red Sox, going two innings and giving up one run on two hits.

“I thought (he) threw a couple fastballs in the second inning up-middle,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “But other than that he was down and pretty good.”

In the second inning, first baseman Chris Parmelee, the Twins No. 1 pick in the 2006 draft, doubled and scored on Jason Repko’s triple to right field.

“I felt like I was rushing a little bit,” Beckett said. “There’s some positives there. I wanted to get some groundballs. That means you’re keeping the ball down, and I did that. So, it was good.”

The Twins added four runs in the fifth. Red Sox left-hander Hideki Okajima opened the inning with consecutive singles to Parmelee, Repko, and Alexi Casilla before Joe Benson’s triple. Tsuyoshi Nishioka’s single then drove in Benson, giving the Twins a five-run lead.

Nishioka, who batted second and played second base, is entering his first season in the major leagues after playing seven seasons with the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan. In the first play of the game, he threw out Boston leadoff batter Darnell McDonald.

“‘Nishi’ made I think three great plays out there. Not easy plays,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire. “The field was wet. The ball was skipping pretty good, and he made them look pretty doggone easy.”

Nishioka went 1 for 3, with an RBI.

“I watched him run down the line, and he can fly,” Gardenhire said. “We know he can run, but he can fly. He was flying, and that’s kind of what we like. We like to run the balls out … That’s a feel-good for us because we like the hustle and he was flying.”

The Red Sox cut the lead in the eighth, on Lars Anderson’s solo home run. Daniel Nava, who singled, scored on Oscar Tejeda’s single, with Tejeda taking third on left fielder Chase Lambin’s throwing error. Josh Reddick’s single scored Tejeda.

Boston’s Mark Wagner hit a solo homer in the top of the ninth to make it 8-4.

Mike Cameron, who missed all but 48 games in 2010 with a lower abdominal strain, went 1 for 3 with a stolen base, after having no steals last season.

“(Cameron) runs down the line, his stride looks good,” Francona said. “That was the most exciting thing of the night for me.”

The Minnesota Twins got their Spring Training schedule off to a good start by defeating the Boston Red Sox by a score of 8-4.

Carl Pavano pitched a pair of scoreless innings for the Twins, giving up only one hit.

The Twins opened the scoring in the bottom of the second inning when first baseman Chris Parmalee doubled and scored on Jason Repko’s triple to right field. Both teams then went scoreless until the bottom of the fifth, when the Twins put up four more runs, as Parmalee, Repko, and Alexi Casilla opened the inning with consecutive singles. Joe Benson then cleared the bases with a triple, and second baseman Tsuyoshi Nishioka collected his first hit and RBI as a Twin with a single that brought Benson home, giving the Twins a 5-0 lead.

The Twins would add another in the sixth, and the Red Sox would close to within 6-3 in the eighth, but would get no closer as the Twins added two more in the bottom of that frame.

All in all, it was a good start to the Spring Training schedule for Minnesota, particularly for a lineup that didn’t feature Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, and Michael Cuddyer.

For more on the game, be sure to visit our friends at Twinkie Town for their impressions of Sunday’s action.

Read More: Minnesota Twins, Boston Red Sox

Hideki Okajima gave up four runs in the the fifth inning, including a bases-clearing triple to Joe Benson, and the Boston Red Sox were defeated by the Minnesota Twins, 8-5, in their first official Spring Training game of the 2011 campaign in Lee County, Florida on Sunday night.

Okajima (1 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 2 K) was not credited with the loss, though, as Red Sox starting pitcher Josh Beckett (2 IP, 2 H, 1 R) gave up an unearned run in the first inning and was credited with the loss.

Clay Buchholz relieved Beckett and tossed two scoreless innings, striking out one, before leaving the game in favor of Okajima. Dan Wheeler gave up two hits and one earned run in the sixth inning, Scott Atchison tossed a scoreless seventh inning and Brandon Duckworth allowed three hits and two earned runs in the eighth inning for Boston (0-1).

Twins starter Carl Pavano (1-0) tossed two scoreless innings to earn the win, allowing one hit and striking out two. Pat Neshek, Dusty Hughes and Alex Burnett were all pitched scoreless innings and were credited with holds for Minnesota (1-0).

Red Sox regulars Kevin Youkilis (1-for-3), David Ortiz (0-for-3), Jed Lowrie (0-for-3), Mike Cameron (1-for-3) and Jarrod Saltalamacchia (0-for-2) all saw limited playing time in the loss.

Minnesota’s Jason Repko tripled off of Beckett in the first inning, plating Chris Parmlee and giving the Twins an early 1-0 lead. Neither team would score again until the fifth inning, when Benson cleared the bases with his triple and Tsuyoshi Nishioka singled to right, allowing Benson to score. Jeff Bailey homered in the sixth inning, building the Twins’ lead to 6-0.

Lars Anderson (1-for-3) hit a solo home run to right center to give Boston its first run in the top of the eighth. With one out in the inning, Oscar Tejeda (1-for-1) singled on a fly ball to center, plating Daniel Nava (1-for-2) and trimming the Red Sox deficit to 6-2. Tejeda advanced to third on the play via shortstop Chase Lambin’s throwing error.

Still with one out in the eighth, pinch hitter Josh Reddick (1-for-1) singled to center, allowing Tejeda to score and bringing Boston within three runs.

The Twins got two runs back in the bottom half of the inning on a Matthew Brown sacrifice fly that plated Luke Hughes and Lambin’s RBI-single to right.

Mark Wagner hit a solo home run in the top of the ninth to bring Boston within four, 8-4, but the Red Sox were unable to get any closer.

Daisuke Matsuzaka is on the mound for Boston on Monday afternoon when it hosts the Twins at City of Palms Park in Fort Myers, Florida at 1:05 p.m. EST.