Terry Francona had to have his usual verbal wrestling match with Dustin Pedroia to get him to take a day off, but in the end even Pedroia admitted it wasn't such a bad idea, especially because the team is heading into the Texas inferno after today's game.

"He's played a lot and he looks like he needs it," said Francona. 'He started to fight hard to play...he eventually realized he needs it." Francona acknowledged that Pedroia is the player you would want to play everyday if you could, but against the tough Justin Verlander, why not? So Chris Woodward, who was taking a of ground balls and practicing his feed to the shortstop on Wednesday afternoon at Fenway, gets the nod.

Francona was also hoping youngster Josh Reddick, batting second in Boston's lineup and playing right field over J.D. Drew, will create some energy for the Sox lineup. 'He's got a chance to do something offensively to help us win a game."

Francona thought it was nice to have a roster move for a couple of days but he knows the stability probably won't last. Tim Wakefield is likely to return next week. Perhaps even Jed Lowrie sometime soon.

Francona has been very impressed with the manner in which Victor Martinez has tried to learn every pitcher on the Red Sox roster, often volunteering to catch their bullpen sessions. Francona said there were a lot of things they knew about Martinez after the traded for him, but now that they've seen him, they're impressed with his work ethic and attention to detail. When Martinez volunteered to catch a pitcher before the game yesterday, Francona even told him to take a break.

Barber to the athletes, Montro, has been in Boston the past couple of days. This morning he gave haircuts to Miguel Cabrera, Carlos Guillen and Curtis Granderson. He often comes in to trim David Ortiz' beard.