BOSTON -- Nearly three months ago, Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia admitted it was possible his left knee could prevent him from playing again.

But that doesn’t mean Pedroia is ready to give up. The Red Sox announced that Pedroia underwent successful left knee joint preservation surgery on Tuesday.

The surgery rules out any remote chance Pedroia still had of playing in 2019, but it signifies he hasn’t given up hope of another comeback attempt in ’20.

“It’s something to ease the pain or get the pain away,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora before Wednesday night’s game against the Royals. “It’s just another step to see where it takes us. As you guys know, he’s going to keep trying to find ways to make this happen. We’ll see where it goes.”

It was the fourth procedure Pedroia has had on his left knee since the end of the 2016 season.

Is this one a last-ditch attempt for Pedroia to determine if he can play again?

“I think there’s one more, but it’s kind of like, very complicated, so we’ll see where this one goes,” Cora said.

The 35-year-old Pedroia will rehabilitate in Arizona, where he has been spending time with his family since the beginning of June.

Pedroia appeared in just six games this season for Boston and played 14 rehabilitation games in Boston’s Minor League system before being forced to stop all baseball activities. In 2018, a World Series championship season for the Red Sox, Pedroia played in three games.

Wright gets PRP injection

A day after Red Sox reliever Heath Hembree got a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection for his ailing right elbow, Steven Wright got one from Dr. James Andrews in Pensacola, Fla.

There is no timetable for the righty knuckleballer to return. Wright started the season serving an 80-game suspension for failing a PED test, and pitched in just six games before a line drive off his left foot put him out of action.

While rehabbing his foot, Wright experienced discomfort with his elbow while playing catch.

“Hopefully, he can bounce back sooner rather than later and let’s see where it takes us, if he can come back this year,” said Cora.

Are the Red Sox up in the zone too much?

After Andrew Cashner was belted around for three homers on Tuesday and beaten repeatedly by pitches in the upper portion of the strike zone, catcher Christian Vázquez had an interesting observation.

“I think everybody knows that we pitch up,” said Vazquez. “They make adjustments. They have reports and they look for it.”

Cora responded on Wednesday, defending the team’s habit of pitching in the upper portion of the zone.

“We’ve done our research and it’s not to the extreme that it looks. I think that pitch still plays up in the zone,” Cora said. “Actually, there are three teams in the league that pitch up in the zone and they [all] have a better record than we do. They do a good job of using the top part of the strike zone. It’s Tampa, Houston and the Yankees.

“It’s just a matter of sometimes executing that pitch. Or actually making it a competitive pitch. Don’t go up just to go up. This is the first time I heard about it.”

Cora and Vazquez have a strong relationship, and he intended to talk to his catcher.

“It’s not that I’m upset at him, don’t get me wrong, but we can talk about it and go from there. I’m not mad at him. I’ll tell him in Spanish,” quipped Cora.