Schilling looks back, takes step forward

He took a line drive off the top of his right foot in the first inning and was charged by an unruly fan in the fifth, but none of that posed a distraction to Curt Schilling in last night's 6-0 shutout victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays before a Fenway Park crowd of 35,120.

After he surrendered a towering grand slam to Chris Gomez in the eighth inning of a 7-3 loss at Toronto last Thursday, Schilling was determined to erase the haunting images of that stinging setback.

"I think like a lot of people, I pitched with this last start of mine as a backdrop to this game," Schilling said after he threw 7 1/3 scoreless innings and scattered five hits while striking out eight.

"I was extremely unhappy with the way the game came out [in Toronto] and a lot of the things that I did," he said. "I'm still trying to establish myself here, as a part of this rotation, this staff, and this team. I wanted to be counted on to get big outs after the sixth inning. It was a hard one to shake off, but I was as determined as I could be after the sixth to make my pitches, to mix it up."

And so, with catcher Jason Varitek calling a splendid game, Schilling utilized every pitch in his repertoire: "I threw my slider to both sides of the plate, I threw my curveball, I threw my split, and I threw my fastball to both sides of the plate," he said. "That's what we talked about doing and we did it."

The result was a redemptive third win of the season for Schilling, who improved to 3-1 and lowered his ERA to 3.31 and tied Bob Feller for 21st on the all-time strikeouts list with 2,581. Schilling needs two more to tie Warren Spahn for 20th place.

But the scariest moment? It was no doubt the line drive Schilling took of his right foot off the bat of Aubrey Huff, putting runners on first and third in the first inning.

"My heart was in my throat," said Sox manager Terry Francona. "From where I was sitting it looked like it got him square. I think it did."

Schilling confirmed his manager's diagnosis. "It hit me good," he said. "The bad part about it was kicking it into the hole. Once I started walking around I felt fine. It was real sore as the game went on."

His arm, though, was just heating up.

"When we went out there, I don't think it hurt because I don't think he could feel it," Francona said. "I don't want to see that at all, but he really did pitch after that."

The only other potential distraction Schilling experienced came when an unidentified fan came charging out of the center-field bleachers and reached the infield grass, where he was tackled by a Fenway security guard.

"Good tackle," Schilling said.

Did he ever feel threatened? "I didn't know if I was going to high-five him or clothesline him," Schilling said. "But I have 'Tek behind me."

In what he described as, perhaps, his best outing to date, Schilling, after taking the shot off the foot, went on to retire 19 of the next 22 batters he faced, striking out the side in the seventh before he departed in the eighth after inducing Rey Sanchez to fly out to center on his 106th pitch.

It was time to retire to the dugout to put down some thoughts in his notebook.

"For the most part, I don't jot overall game notes," Schilling said, when asked what notes he took after his last start in Toronto. "That was such a bad night and I did so poorly [in Toronto] that I didn't have to write anything down to remember a lot of what went on."