Terry Francona is cautiously optimistic that Tim Wakefield is making progress in his effort to get back in the Red Sox rotation.

The knuckleballer threw a simulated game on Monday, testing his back and calf, one that landed him on the disabled list and the other that extended his stay there.

Wakefield threw 51 pitches at Fenway on Monday, got up and down three times and threw 40 warm-up pitches in the bullpen to get loose before taking to the real mound.

“(He) threw the ball great,” Francona said. “We made him cover first a lot of times, his calf is not 100 percent, that’s fairly obvious, it doesn’t affect him when he pitches. I think it’s going to be important to see how he bounces back after running around out there. We’ve got to keep that strength going in the right direction. We don’t want to make a mistake and pitch him too quickly. We definitely think he can get outs.

“We’ll wait until (Tuesday) and see how he responds and then try to come up with a little more of a game plan as to what we do next. (He) looks great throwing the ball.”