Papelbon entering an entirely different zone

MINNEAPOLIS - He is an emotional young man who rises to excellence because of adrenaline that pumps through his large frame and spews out in the form of a high-90s fastball that usually proves too much for hitters.

So as he sat near his locker at the end of the visiting clubhouse for some 10 minutes after losing a ninth-inning lead to the Twins, trying to calm himself, trying to decompress, he just thought of how he was going to make it better again.

"I just didn't want to get up and say something I shouldn't be saying," said Papelbon, when asked about his long stare into his hands. "I just wanted to collect my thoughts and just think about what happened out there tonight and how I'm going to go about changing things. I mean, one little thing turns into a big thing. That's kind of what happened tonight."

Did he feel he let the team down?

"Oh, no, these guys know what I'm all about and what happened out there," Papelbon said. "I would never think that. I was just frustrated by what happened out there. Incredibly frustrated. Nothing more than that. I just need to get back out there and get myself together again. These are stretches I don't understand how they happen sometime."

Mike Timlin saw reporters waiting for Papelbon to take his face away from his hands and hold his head up. Timlin politely told reporters to give Papelbon some space until he was ready.

Papelbon spoke at length when he was ready, about how he's not finishing his pitches through the zone and how that mechanical flaw is allowing hitters to get wood on the ball. But, really, how much wood?

The lefthanded-hitting Mike Lamb happened to hit a pool shot to left field, where nobody was positioned, scoring two runs in the ninth for Minnesota's exhilarating victory. These are games that rev up teams like the Twins, knowing they went out and beat whom many believe is the best closer in the game. The closer who has now lost two straight, including Wednesday night in Detroit, when he was dinged for two bloop hits, a key Julio Lugo error, and a broken-bat hit that was the winner. Papelbon even acknowledged last night there wasn't much he could do about that one. But he felt he had more to say about the outcome of last night's game.

Delmon Young opened the ninth with a sharp single to left-center, nothing soft about that one. After a sacrifice, Adam Everett fouled out to first. But Carlos Gomez walked, the first Papelbon has allowed since March 25, and when both runners moved up on uncontested stolen bases, Lamb came through.

"I've got one out to get. It's pretty simple," said Papelbon, who suffered consecutive losses for the first time in his career. "I've got to execute a pitch with two strikes and get the job done. I didn't do that. I've got to get back on track in order to be able to finish my pitches and throw my pitches with confidence. When I don't finish my pitch, it's not going to finish through the strike zone like I want it to."

Just a few days ago at Fenway Park, Papelbon talked about how he felt he was at the peak of his career. How everything he learned over a three-year period was coming to roost. How it felt as if he figured things out and how clearly things looked to him. And now, on this night when the Sox blew a 6-5 lead after Hideki Okajima had pitched two scoreless innings of relief, Papelbon seemed as if he had to go back to the old drawing board.

It isn't as if he is giving up walkoff homers and getting hit hard. He is giving up hits that are finding holes. He acknowledged later he probably could have had two saves even with the flaws in his delivery.

"It's going to be a test for me these next few days because I need to regain that confidence," Papelbon said. "I mean, it's not really a confidence issue, it's an issue with me being able to go out there and approach and focus on the way I get hitters out. I'm not doing that right now.

"I'm not going out there and attacking hitters. It doesn't necessarily go back to the last time, either. The last time they had three bloop hits and a broken bat. Tonight, I could of done something about that. Tonight is a whole different story. This is no correlation to [Wednesday] night. None at all."

Papelbon hasn't been striking out hitters lately, either. Pitching coach John Farrell said that was uncharacteristic, but he thought Papelbon's main problem was he "had a tendency to overstride," which prevented his splitter from bottoming out. Farrell said Papelbon isn't in that dominant zone anymore, but he's not far off, either.

Closers go through this stuff all the time. We've seen it this season from Eric Gagné (five blown saves), from Trevor Hoffman. Joba Chamberlain, though not a closer, had a rough outing recently. Closers don't stay perfect and Papelbon knows that.

It's too bad it happened last night because the Red Sox had a chance to gain more ground on a fading American League East.

Toronto's lineup is so bad they signed Seattle free agent bust Brad Wilkerson and traded for Texas Triple A outfielder Kevin Mench the same day. The Yankees are so decimated they had to start Japanese head case Kei Igawa, who in his first start, last night in Detroit, allowed 11 hits and six runs in three innings of a 6-5 loss. The Orioles are coming back down to earth. The Rays are up and down.

Papelbon didn't have to think about any of that stuff last night. All he had to do, in his words, was throw a strike. But while he was lamenting a lost opportunity, his teammates didn't seem concerned. Like he said, nobody in that room, though quiet and somber, felt Papelbon had let them down.

Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com.