FORT MYERS, Fla. — This is the Christian Vazquez the Red Sox have dreamed of.

In Sunday’s 7-2 win over the Twins, Vazquez was the dominant presence on the field, making a two-way impact. The catcher picked one runner off second base, threw another out trying to steal third and applied a terrific tag on a play at the plate. Oh, and he hit a three-run homer.

Sunday was the kind of defensive masterpiece the Red Sox envisioned with Vazquez heading into 2015. Maybe there wouldn’t be much offense, but Vazquez had the rare talent to dominate a game from behind the plate rather than at it.

“His ability to impact a game from behind the plate was on display today,” Manager John Farrell said. “It’s a special player defensively.”

Tommy John surgery interrupted that talent in 2015, and even last year, Vazquez never quite seemed the best version of himself. Now?

“He looks like Christian Vazquez,” said bullpen coach and catching instructor Dana LeVangie. “When you look at a catcher, you want to see confidence. Christian’s name should be right defined with that word.”

“I was aggressive last year, too. The only difference is I was not 100 percent. I had good days and bad days,” Vazquez said. “I was playing hard last year, but this year is different than last year. I’m happy with that.”

“There might have been some ebbs and flows with his personal confidence (last year),” Farrell said. “He’s doing the things he’s capable of defensively, for sure.”

Vazquez picked ByungHo Park off second to end the second inning, and he threw out Eddie Rosario trying to swipe third in the fifth.

STARTER CHRIS Sale worked through some traffic on the bases to hold the Twins scoreless over five innings and 91 pitches. He struck out six and walked one, bringing his Grapefruit League ratio to 26 to two.

“I feel good. That’s half the battle, getting through it,” said Sale. “We’ve done that collectively as a group really well.”

Sale said he could have gone back out for a sixth inning, and Farrell said he would have in a regular-season game. Minnesota did work pitch counts well, as Sale threw more than 20 pitches in two separate innings.

“This team, I threw batting practice to them for a couple years now. It was nice to be able to face somebody like that and really have to lock it in,” Sale said.

The lefty is slated to start on Friday at Nationals Park in Boston’s exhibition game with the Nationals. The Red Sox are monitoring the weather due to a threat of rain in DC, meaning Sale may end up staying back to throw once more in Fort Myers.

Rusney Castillo and Allen Craig were among those sent down from Red Sox major-league camp on Sunday.

Noe Ramirez, Brian Bogusevic, Matt Dominguez, Jake DePew and Hector Velazquez were also sent out.

In the cases of Castillo and Craig, the move is hardly surprising. Although both played relatively well this spring, their unusual roster circumstances mean they’re unlikely to crack the major-league roster now – or at all in 2017. Since neither Castillo nor Craig is on the 40-man roster, their salaries do not count toward the competitive-balance tax. Should they be placed on the roster, or should Boston pay some of their salary to facilitate a trade, they would count toward the tax – and possibly push the Sox over it.