Healthy Schilling ready to start season
FORT MYERS, Fla. --Curt Schilling's arm feels "fantastic" and his ankle seems solid again. Now he's dealing with a case of the nerves.
It may last a while.
"I'm nervous, anxious," Schilling said after Wednesday's 3-2 win over Pittsburgh in a tuneup for his first opening day start with Boston. "It's been two years since I've been the guy I was. Until I do what I did before, there's a lot of questions."
He pitched most of 2004 with a right ankle injury that got so bad in the postseason that he had surgery to suture a tendon to the skin to enable him to pitch -- and he did that brilliantly in Game 6 of the AL championship series and Game 2 of the Red Sox sweep of the World Series against St. Louis.
The ankle bothered him last season and he finished at 8-8 with a 5.69 ERA and 76 days on the disabled list.
"At no point last year was I confident and comfortable in putting guys away because, physically, I didn't feel like I had the ability to do it," Schilling said.
In 2004, he was 21-6 with a 3.26 ERA.
"I want to believe that physically I can be where I was, if not better," Schilling said, "but until you go out there when it counts you can think all you want. I want to see myself go out and get it done. That's probably where a lot of the nerves come from."
His first chance comes Monday in Texas. Schilling joined the Red Sox before the 2004 season, but Pedro Martinez pitched that opening day and David Wells did it last year because Schilling was hurt.
"It's cool," Schilling said. "It's an electric day. It's a lot of fun. I just want it to get here more than anything."
He wasn't dominant Wednesday and said he didn't have a lot of life on his fastball. The Pirates put runners on base in each of his four innings and he left trailing 2-1. Trot Nixon's two-run double in the seventh provided the winning runs.
Schilling allowed six hits with two strikeouts and a walk and was outpitched by the Pirates' opening day starter, Oliver Perez. The lefty, also coming off a bad season, allowed one run on three hits with seven strikeouts and one walk in 5 2-3 innings and retired the last 14 batters he faced after Wily Mo Pena's RBI double in the second.
Schilling's success has been based on command of his fastball but he was wondering about that pitch coming into spring training.
"I answered a lot of questions to myself about velocity. I throw a straight fastball so location and velocity are of paramount importance to me at times," he said.
Consecutive singles with no outs by Joe Randa, Jody Gerut and Jose Castillo tied the game in the fourth, and Chris Duffy's groundout to first base sent Gerut home for a 2-1 lead.
"Today was probably as bad a fastball physically as I've felt like I've had all spring," Schilling said. "Regardless of my emotions coming out of this game or how I feel about everything. I've got to be ready to go Monday."
