Story and Art by Jim Reilly, southcoast247.com associate editor
April 3, 2007
"Schilling Schelled in Opener"
Curt Schilling took Red Sox Nation by surprise with the announcement that he wanted to pitch in 2008. He upped the dramatic ante when he gave the Sox brass an end-of-spring-training deadline to sign him, threatening to test the waters of free agency at the end of the season if a deal was not struck by the time April Fool’s Day rolled around. Of course, Theo Epstein didn’t blink (I’m not even sure if he’s capable), and Curt went into the season opener against the lowly Kansas City Royals as a pitcher in a “contract year”. After all of the hype, hoopla, and borderline histrionics from Red Sox fans crying foul at the fact that the Sox didn’t lock “the sock” to another year with the club, it was Schilling, himself, who quieted the masses (and made Epstein look like Nostradamus) with a pathetic four-inning season debut that had many of the folks in Kaufman Stadium wondering if it was still batting practice. Meanwhile, the Red Sox offense made the truly average Gil Meche look like Johan Santana facing the Titleist company softball team.
The Red Sox got to Meche in the top of the first who, after striking out Julio Lugo, yielded a single to Kevin Youkillis, who would then score on a David Ortiz double. The mini-rally would soon end, though, with Manny Ramirez flying out after uncharacteristically slapping at the first pitch he saw, and J.D. Drew flying out to end the inning. That would bring out a clearly revved-up Curt Schilling, anxious to prove his pundits wrong, as well as debut a new pitch, as well as a new “pitch for contact” philosophy. Thirty three pitches and one run later, a sweaty and already defeated Schilling returned to the dugout to scribble in his notebook. One can only imagine what he wrote.
Note to self. The new pitching philosophy sucks!
Schilling would go on to throw eighty nine pitches over four innings, give up five runs on eight hits, and force the Red Sox to dip into its underwhelming bullpen three innings earlier than anyone expected. The pen parade began with submariner Javier Lopez, who pitched a scoreless fifth, while that other Japanese import, Hideki Okajima, saw his major league debut pitch land just over the wall in center field. Okajima recovered nicely, though, striking out two over 1.2 innings, giving way to Brandon Donnelly (who struck out the only batter he faced), Joel Pineiro (2 hits and 1 run in 0.1 innings of work), and J.C. Romero.
On the other side of the diamond, Gil Meche – the man with the lifetime 4.62 ERA – went 7.2 innings, striking out six (although, to be fair, three of those k’s belonged to Julio Lugo), and, with a little help from Joel Peralta, shut the Sox offense down.
Meanwhile, the Yankees, helped along by future record books asterisk, Jason Giambi, overtook the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in their Bronx opener, while the Blue Jays edged the Tigers in Detroit.
That’s right, Red Sox fans; it’s only been one game and our boys have already dropped back into third place, and if Schilling’s performance is any indicator, we may be here for awhile.
Curt Schilling took Red Sox Nation by surprise with the announcement that he wanted to pitch in 2008. He upped the dramatic ante when he gave the Sox brass an end-of-spring-training deadline to sign him, threatening to test the waters of free agency at the end of the season if a deal was not struck by the time April Fool’s Day rolled around. Of course, Theo Epstein didn’t blink (I’m not even sure if he’s capable), and Curt went into the season opener against the lowly Kansas City Royals as a pitcher in a “contract year”. After all of the hype, hoopla, and borderline histrionics from Red Sox fans crying foul at the fact that the Sox didn’t lock “the sock” to another year with the club, it was Schilling, himself, who quieted the masses (and made Epstein look like Nostradamus) with a pathetic four-inning season debut that had many of the folks in Kaufman Stadium wondering if it was still batting practice. Meanwhile, the Red Sox offense made the truly average Gil Meche look like Johan Santana facing the Titleist company softball team.
