It’s not uncommon to see David Ortiz teaching soon-to-be six-year-old D’Angelo how to hit or Victor Martinez teaching his son, Victor, how to catch in the clubhouse before a major league game. But as Terry Francona recalled on Sunday, it wasn’t always that way.

As a matter of fact, when he was following his dad, it was quite the privilege.

“It was a little different back then,” Francona said of the time spent with the original Tito Francona during his dad’s playing days from 1959-1970. “My dad’s last three or four years, I went to the ball park with him just about every day.

“My punishment was not being able to go early. And it happened once. It wasn’t that I was that great a kid. I just wanted to go to the ball park.”

And on Sunday, Francona recalled one road trip with his dad in particular. It was August, 1970 and Tito Francona was finishing up his career with the Milwaukee Brewers. Like all kids on summer vacation, his son Terry was hoping to go on a road trip with his dad.

Dave Bristol, in his first year managing the Brewers, did both Franconas a big favor.

“Grizzled baseball guy but my dad knew it was his last year so he asked Dave, ‘Can I take my son on a road trip?’ because back then you didn’t do that but he said ok. So I went to Minnesota, Kansas City and Chicago, a 10-day road trip.

“I remember being in Minnesota and watching Lew Krausse pitch for Milwaukee,” Francona began, before recalling another pitcher who pitched the next night. “Bert Blyleven [pitched] and after the game was over, I came into the clubhouse, and they just got two-hit, and I was sitting in my dad’s locker and I said, ‘That guy’s got a good curveball,’ and he looked at me like [he knew] I was watching the game. I was 11 and it was awesome. It was probably the funnest [sic] 11 days of my life.”

Red Sox manager Terry Francona said he is hopeful that J.D. Drew will return from a mild hamstring strain on Tuesday night at Coors Field in Colorado, adding he doesn’t believe the right fielder is headed for the disabled list.

“I hope Tuesday’s realistic,” Francona said before Sunday’s game. “If it’s not, we won’t do it. I think it’s probably realistic to think it might work, that he might play. The good news is that I don’t think anybody remotely thinks it’s a DL. Stay away from him tonight, get day off [Monday] and see how he’s doing. It’s a big outfield in Denver. If he’s healthy to play, he’ll play, if not we’ll make the adjustment like we always do.”

Daisuke Matsuzaka will come off the disabled list on Thursday and start against the Colorado Rockies after throwing a successful simulated game on Saturday at Fenway Park, Red Sox manager Terry Francona announced.

“We wanted to wait for Daisuke to throw and get looked at after he was done,” Francona said. “Dice threw 49 pitches and felt really good, checked out fine afterwards. He’ll pitch Thursday in Colorado.”

Matsuzaka was scratched minutes before his scheduled start against Philadelphia last Saturday and immediately placed on the disabled list with right forearm soreness.

Reliever Robert Manuel, with a sparkling 4-1 record, 0.98 ERA and eight saves at Triple-A, was selected from Pawtucket and was called up to join the Red Sox in time for Saturday’s game against the Dodgers.

Felix Doubront, after winning his major league debut on Friday night, was optioned back to Pawtucket and will resume his normal spot in the PawSox rotation, Francona said.

[Click here to listen to Terry Francona explain the latest on Matsuzaka.]

J.D. Drew reported to Fenway Park early Saturday after having an MRI on his strained right hamstring, injured in Friday’s win over the Dodgers. Red Sox manager Terry Francona said the team is waiting on the results but the right fielder will definitely get the next two days off.

“J.D. showed early, got looked at. He’s sore and he actually has pretty good range of motion,” Francona said. “It doesn’t look like there’s a divot [in hamstring], which is good.”

“Like I told Tito, I think it’s manageable,” Drew said. “When the pictures come back, we’ll have a better idea if I just need a couple of days, get a massage and let it calm down or if it needs a longer period of time.”

[Click here to listen to Terry Francona explain the Drew situation.]

[Click here to listen to Drew explain his situation.]

The Red Sox announced Tuesday the Boston Transportation Department will close various streets in the Fenway neighborhood and surrounding areas during tonight’s Celtics playoff game.

Brookline Avenue will be closed to vehicular traffic from the Landmark Center to Kenmore Square beginning at the end of the third quarter of tonight’s Celtics game. The area around Fenway Park has been posted with no parking/tow zone signs. 

Starting at 7:30 p.m. tonight, the Boston Transportation Department will begin towing vehicles parked on Ipswich Street, from Boylston Street to Charlesgate, and on Brookline Avenue, from Park Drive to Kenmore Square.

This will also be the case on Thursday if there is a Game 7 between the Celtics and Lakers that evening in Los Angeles.  The Red Sox urge fans to use public transportation if at all possible.

Nothing builds unity than when things are seemingly falling apart.

It’s arguably the greatest oxymoron in sports. But it’s one that Terry Francona appreciates very keenly.

It was evident in 2004 when the team was playing .500 ball for the better part of three months before taking off and getting hot into the playoffs and World Series.

It was evident in 2007 when the team was down 3-1 on the road in Cleveland, facing the prospects of having the Indians clinch the American League pennant in Game 5 before Josh Beckett turned things around in Game 5.

And it was evident Saturday when Daisuke Matsuzaka was placed on the disabled list prior to his scheduled start against the Phillies and the Red Sox were forced to start Scott Atchison. The Red Sox pieced together a gutsy effort and got some grand slam magic from a kid by the name of Daniel Nava.

“[Saturday] was a challenge but it was a great day,” Francona said before Sunday’s game. “That’s the way teams come together. We had a ton of personality. We had the young kid doing something special and the bullpen comes together and does more than they’re supposed to and everybody has a bunch of energy. I know it takes a toll on your team because today we’re a little short but I think that really helps in the long run if you handle it and we handled it real well.”

[Francona talks about his team's great team unity.]

No where has chemistry been more evident than in the outfield. They’ve lost Mike Cameron, Jacoby Ellsbury and Jeremy Hermida and replaced them with Darnell McDonald, Josh Reddick, Bill Hall and Saturday, Daniel Nava.

“A bunch of our outfielders go down, Hermida gets a ton of big hits,” Francona said. “He goes down, Mac’s been playing great. Guys have stepped in. Nava comes in and gets a huge hit. Guys have done a great job. We have Wake to pitch. Wake goes to the bullpen for a while and now he’s back starting. We may have to piece it together sometimes.

“I think when you get beat up and you play well, that’s when I think you start seeing some personality on your team. When you get beat up and you’re losing, that’s another thing. That happened in ’06 and that wasn’t a lot of fun. Yesterday was a good example, that ended up being a really good day. That dugout was as lively as it’s been in a long time.”

[Francona talks about his great bench so far.]

Believe it or not, Francona said he was not going to play Nava on Sunday before he spoke to Mike Cameron.

“We actually we not going to,” Francona said. “We were going to play Cam in center and Mac in left and then the more we talked about it last night and we talked to Cam, and with a quick day game today and day off [Monday] we had a chance to protect him a little bit and maybe build instead of reaching for a little bit further. I don’t think he disagreed. I know he wants to play but I think he understands that we’re trying to help so we did go back and put Nava in there.”

Meanwhile, the bumps and bruises still mount. Francona gave Kevin Youkilis the day off on Sunday after getting drilled on the inside of the right elbow in Saturday’s game.

“He’s a little bit sore,” Francona said. “He’s ok. I think with what’s happened this week with his back and getting plunked yesterday and having Mikey Lowell here, I think it made some sense with the day off tomorrow.”

Matsuzaka update: “He said he feels great, which is good. I’d rather him show up and have that. We certainly need to delve into it a little bit more but he actually feels pretty good. I think we’re cautiously optimistic about that but we’ll try to get more information.”

Hermida update: “He actually feels a little bit better, which I think is the hope. He’s got some time down from some baseball activities, he’s doing some of the biking and some of the treatment to get some of the swelling [down]. Just give him some time to get better before he starts getting aggressive again. I think he’s feeling better each day.”

Francona reiterated that Jacoby Ellsbury will be in Arizona for a while: “He’ll be there for a minimum of two weeks.”

Josh Beckett continued his rehab by throwing from 90 feet on Sunday, one day after playing catch for the first time since aggravating a side muscle while on the disabled list.

“We’ll duplicate that,” Francona said of the Sunday session, “then get it out to 120 and then have a down day and then we’ll go from there.”

Beckett went on the disabled list May 19 with a strained lower back. During a side session on May 28, the right-hander felt some discomfort in his lat muscle. The Red Sox then told Beckett not to do any throwing for 10 days, ending with Saturday’s flat ground session. He has yet to throw from a mound.

Despite being placed immediately on the 15-day disabled list with right forearm soreness, Daisuke Matsuzaka said after Saturday’s game that he is not overly concerned about the injury that forced him to be scratched from Saturday’s start against Philadelphia at Fenway Park. Matsuzaka said he did experience this before in his career but can’t remember the last time it bothered him to the point where he had to miss a start.

“I can’t even remember when the last time was so I think that just goes to tell you I don’t think this is a really big problem at all,” Matsuzaka said through interpreter Masa Hoshino.

Matsuzaka, who entered the game with three wins in his last four starts and a 5-2 record, said he did not feel any cramping or tightness while stretching and playing catch prior to heading out to his bullpen session prior to the game. He said he informed pitching coach John Farrell of the issue and the decision was made to shut him down.

“Until I went to the bullpen, I went through my regular routine, but once I got in and started throwing, I felt some sudden tightness in my forearm,” he said. “I think I could have pitched through it, but we talked about it and decided there’s no sense in trying to compenstate and making a mechanical adjustment just to get through it, so that was the decision.”

Matsuzaka said he didn’t feel anything unusual in his side session or work leading up to his warmup for Saturday’s scheduled start.

“Nothing out of the ordinary,” he said. “I went through my normal routine, got some massage work done. And went into my start today feeling pretty much the same as usual, so yes it was sudden.”

Matsuzaka said he felt badly that he had to go on the disabled list because it forced the Red Sox bullpen into a difficult situation, starting with emergency starter Scott Atchison.

“Even today we had to go through a lot of pitchers to get through the game, and for that I feel very sorry,” Matsuzaka said.

Matsuzaka said he felt no issues with the elbow and will get a combination of heat, ice and massage work while on the disabled list.

“After coming out of the game, the trainers took a look at me and things didn’t seem that bad,” Matsuzaka said. “It’s not a joint issue. It’s muscle soreness, so I don’t think it’s going to take that long. We’ll take some time, see how I feel tomorrow, and take it from there.”