Team is mum on ace

ST. LOUIS -- In the best of all worlds for the Red Sox, they would be World Series champions by Saturday, the next time Curt Schilling is scheduled to pitch. Schilling could kick back, savor the victory parade and the avalanche of accolades, and prepare to undergo surgery to repair the dislocated tendon in his right ankle.

Best of all, he could avoid another temporary fix of the tendon and the possibility that a third such procedure could cause more serious damage.

But the Sox were reluctant to address the prospect of Schilling pitching again with his tendon sutured, an unprecedented procedure. Leading the Cardinals, 2-0, in the best-of-seven series, they preferred to characterize Schilling's status as day to day.

"We'll do what we always have, just keep reevaluating and monitoring and preparing for his next start," manager Terry Francona said. "That's what we've done the whole time."

After the procedure worked well enough to allow Schilling to face the Yankees a second time in the American League Championship Series, it snagged before he faced the Cardinals in Game 2 of the World Series. Schilling said he awoke in such pain the day of the game -- a suture was irritating a nerve -- that he was immobilized.

"I wasn't going to pitch," he said. "I couldn't walk, I couldn't move."

But after the medical staff removed the suture, Schilling dominated the Cardinals over six innings Sunday night en route to a 6-2 victory.

Francona suggested that Schilling's characterization of the situation may have made his condition seem a bit worse than it was.

"I heard what he said in his press conference after the game," Francona said. "Someone started bawling, it was so dramatic. But I talked to him before the game and I really didn't think he wasn't going to pitch. I know Schill. I knew he was going to pitch and he did."

Sox medical director Bill Morgan was quoted by the Associated Press Sunday as saying he may be reluctant to perform the procedure again if Schilling needs to pitch Saturday in Game 6.

"Honestly, we may not be able to do it a third time," Morgan was quoted as saying. "It depends what the tissues look like."

But the Sox distanced themselves from the statement and Morgan said later he may have been misinterpreted in the AP story.

"It's all wait and see," Morgan said. "We're just going to do the best we can and see what happens."