Though he is still the quintessential knuckleballer, Tim Wakefield is hoping his curveball can be a better secondary weapon this year than it's been in the past.

Wakefield estimates that he threw five curveballs in Wednesday's three-inning stint against the Mets. By comparison, Wakefield generally spins two or three breaking balls over six or seven innings of a regular-season start.

"I'd like to get a better feel for it so that when I do have to throw it, I know I'm not fighting myself," said Wakefield, who scattered four hits, but didn't allow a run during his 55-pitch outing. "You throw 80 pitches and haven't thrown a breaking ball, and then you're going to mix one in during the seventh and you hang it and give up a homer, it's kind of a stupid pitch to throw."

But with the proper reps this spring, Wakefield thinks it could make a subtle difference for him during the season.

"I think it's an important pitch for me to work in," said Wakefield. "I've always had it. It's just, when the knuckleball is working, why throw it? I'm getting outs, but I think it could be a very important pitch to my repertoire if I used it a little bit more. I got a lot of strikeouts with it last year."

Manger Terry Francona and pitching coach John Farrell are on board with Wakefield's plan to go with the bender a little more often.

"We were talking about that the other day," said Francona. "When he commands it, sometimes that can almost be a free strike. We don't want him to overuse it, especially to right-handers. When he has that feel that he can go to it, maybe he can use it instead of his fastball."

Though Francona hasn't announced the order of his rotation yet, Wakefield said that he's already been told he'll follow Jonathan Papelbon and pitch the fifth game of the season.

"As of now, yeah, I'm the No. 5 guy behind Papelbon," Wakefield said. "You never know. You can start the season as the fifth starter and by the All-Star break, you're facing a lot of No. 1s. The season will dictate those decisions."