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Dustin Pedroia said Tuesday that a group of Boston Red Sox players met with team ownership in late July, but denied a report that players called for a change to be made at manager.

"I don't think Bobby (Valentine) should be fired," Pedroia said Tuesday night after Boston's 7-1 loss to Baltimore. "We haven't played well. That's the bottom line. I'm not going to blame anything on Bobby. It's on the players. Last year wasn't on Tito (former manager Terry Francona). I know he took it hard. We were 99.7 percent in the playoffs last year, and we weren't in there. Anything can happen. Baseball's a crazy game."

According to a Yahoo! Sports report, a group of Red Sox players was highly critical of Valentine, some even stating at a July 26 meeting with team ownership that they no longer wanted to play for him.

Irked by Valentine's decision to leave Jon Lester in a July 22 game in which he surrendered 11 runs, first baseman Adrian Gonzalez reportedly texted his displeasure to ownership on behalf of himself and other players. That message led to owner John Henry and team president Larry Lucchino meeting with a frustrated group of players at a New York hotel before a series against the Yankees.

"I don't know, I've never met the guy that wrote the story," Pedroia said. "We're going to go out and play as hard as we can. We dug ourselves this hole, and we've got to try to dig ourselves out of it. We've got to be professional."

The meeting, three unnamed sources told Yahoo! Sports, turned ugly, with Gonzalez and Pedroia among the most vocal in their criticism of Valentine. ESPN.com reported that 17 players took part in the meeting.

"It's tough," Pedroia said. "We had a meeting. I'll be honest with everybody. We had a meeting in New York. The coaches had a meeting. Bobby had a meeting. We all had a meeting. Basically, when I spoke, I said we all need to do better. That includes owners, Bobby, coaches, especially the players.