Two quick updates, one on Chris Woodward and one on Daisuke Matsuzaka:

-To make room for Alex Gonzalez, the Red Sox designated Woodward for assignment. Woodward has until Tuesday at 1 p.m. to clear waivers. If he gets claimed, he'll join a new big league team. If not, he'll report to Pawtucket.

"We think he’s a big league player," manager Terry Francona said. "Part of me hopes he gets picked up, because I like him. Part of me hopes that they don’t, so we can keep him."

-Francona was encouraged by Matsuzaka's bullpen session yesterday, during which he threw 65 pitches, throwing all of his pitches. "He got up on some fastballs and let it go pretty good," Francona said. "The changeup, I think the arm slot was a little inconsistent, which I imagine would be. But everything was really enouraging."

Matsuzaka will throw another bullpen Monday, with an increased pitch count. On Thursday, he'll throw another bullpen with the intensity dialed down. His next appearance would be a few innings of a rehab start, likely in the Gulf Coast League.

"We were very, very open about, we were going to go completely on week-to-week on how he did," Francona said. "We tried not to set a schedule, because that wouldn't do anybody any good. We've been kind of swimming upstream this year, and we wanted to stop doing that. We sat down and said we wanted to accomplish a lot of things, and we're doing that. We’re going to get paid off in the end. It may not happen quickly, but it will be better in the long run for everybody.”