(Sports Network) - The American League's top team, the Boston Red Sox, will take the field this evening in hopes of winning the third test of a four-game set against the Minnesota Twins at the Metrodome.

Tim Wakefield will take the hill tonight for the Red Sox, and will look to build off his last outing. Wakefield is coming off a tremendous start in which he tossed eight shutout innings against Detroit. In the 5-0 victory over the Tigers, the 41-year-old scattered just two hits, walked no batters and struck out six opponents.

It was the first win away from home for Wakefield in four road starts this season, and the knuckleballer is now 1-0 with a 2.77 away from Fenway. Overall the right-hander is 3-1 on the season and has a strong 3.33 ERA.

In his career against the Twins, Wakefield has had tremendous success, collecting a strong 13-4 ledger in 21 starts. In 24 total appearances against Minnesota the crafty veteran has an ERA of 4.00 and has struck out 106 batters in 137 1/3 innings.

The surprising Twins will counter with Nick Blackburn. The 26-year-old enters this matchup with a mediocre 2-2 ledger and a 3.65 ERA in seven starts. Unfortunately, one of those losses came the last time Blackburn was on the hill, as the right-hander was defeated by Chicago, 7-1.

In the setback to the White Sox, Blackburn tossed six innings, surrendering four runs (three earned) on six hits and three walks.

Blackburn has never started against the Red Sox, but the young hurler has made a relief appearance against the defending world champs. Unfortunately his time on the mound did not go well, as the right-hander was hammered for four runs on four hits in only one inning of duty.

On Saturday, Daisuke Matsuzaka threw seven solid innings, and the Boston Red Sox used four solo home runs to take a 5-2 win over Minnesota in the second of four games from the Metrodome.

Matsuzaka (6-0) gave up two runs on six hits and three walks, while striking out seven for Boston, which has won two of three.

Kevin Youkilis, Coco Crisp, Jed Lowrie and Mike Lowell each homered for the Red Sox. Lowrie, whose homer was the first of his career, and Youkilis each added a double.

Glen Perkins (0-1), who was called up from Triple-A to take the place of injured reliever Pat Neshek, took the loss after giving up three runs on nine hits in six-plus innings of work. He didn't walk a batter, and struck out three, but also gave up three homers.

Brian Bass allowed two runs in 1 2/3 innings of relief for the Twins, who have lost two of three. Mike Lamb went 3-for-4 while Justin Morneau added a pair of hits and an RBI.

Boston won two of three games from the Twins at the Metrodome last May, but the Red Sox have gone just 4-7 as the visitor in this series since the beginning of the 2005 season.