"He says his hair is coming back. He says he and his college teammates invented the "Laser Show'' while taking batting practice at Arizona State. He says he knows what it's like to be Jarrod Saltalamacchia, struggling out of the gate while people whisper that you're no good.

Dustin Pedroia will say just about anything if you talk to him long enough. And in this goofy, underachieving Red Sox April of 2011, he has emerged as the team's de facto captain, a guy who can take over a baseball game without hitting a ball as far as the warning track.

Pedroia submitted a hardball tour de force in the Red Sox' 11-inning, 4-2 victory at the Big A Thursday night. While New England slept, Pedroia reached base five times, stole a base, dodged a tag in a rundown between third and home, fired a one-hop relay strike to gun down Erick Aybar going for a triple leading off the eighth, and shot an 0-and-2 pitch into right field for a single that triggered the winning rally in the 11th.

"I've never seen a player dominate a game like that without hitting a home run,'' said radio man Joe Castiglione, who was covering the Sox when Ralph Houk was manager.

Terry Francona, the man who manages the Red Sox in 2011, loves Pedroia the way Bruce Springsteen loves Miami Steve Van Zandt.

"I've said this about [Derek] Jeter: They want him to have something to do with the outcome of the game,'' Francona gushed after Thursday's win. "That's how we feel about Pedey. Whether it's offensively, defensively. He's a great player, but you see the best of him when the game is close and on the line.''"