Pelfrey impressive again, Twins blank Red Sox 2-0

"Thought it was good after the first inning," Pelfrey said. "I had a really good sinker tonight and I think I should have recognized it a little earlier."

It was Pelfrey's second scoreless outing in a row following a shaky spring debut with his new team. The big right-hander, dumped by the Mets in the offseason, is coming off Tommy John surgery last May and competing for a spot in Minnesota's rotation.

"Pelfrey was good," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "Got his work in. His first inning was a little entertaining. I think he tried to do a little bit too much. After that, his fastball, he started trusting it, moving it in and out."

Red Sox starter Ryan Dempster went 3 2-3 innings, allowing two runs and five hits with two strikeouts.

Pelfrey faced six batters in the first inning. Leadoff batter Jacoby Ellsbury singled to left and stole second. Ryan Sweeney walked with one out and Jonny Gomes' grounder loaded the bases when Minnesota was unable to get a force at second.

Pelfrey buckled down, though, striking out Daniel Nava and retiring Will Middlebrooks on a fly ball to end the threat.

After that, Pelfrey relied on his sinker.

"It was really good tonight. I think I'm going to have days like that," he said. "That's my strength. I'll throw it like 95 times. Obviously that first inning, I tried to be too cute, throwing sliders and curveballs and splits, and missing. But I talked to (pitching coach Rick Anderson) in the dugout in between. He said, 'Hey, what's working tonight?' I said, 'My sinker.' ... Well, let's use that."

Minnesota got to Dempster with two outs in the third. Aaron Hicks doubled and scored on Brian Dozier's single. Ryan Doumit's run-scoring single made it 2-0.

"Two goals completed here tonight," Red Sox manager John Farrell said. "One was to get him close to 70 pitches, which we did. And he went out and made an effort to pitch predominantly with his fastball. Of the (66) pitches I think he threw, only about 12 or 13 were cutters or sliders. The rest were fastballs, which was the intention in tonight's outing."