The new Mr. Inside

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- The stakes were low (the game involved two teams of minor leaguers) and the format loose (player development consultant Dick Berardino, standing behind the pitcher's mound, was the ump).

But the three innings Curt Schilling worked yesterday provided a window into the package of skills Schilling believes he'll need if he's to re-establish himself this season as a dominant pitcher for the Red Sox.

Exhibit A: To the second batter he faced, Schilling went ahead 0-and-2, then unleashed a heater high and tight. The ball caught batter Jeff Natale in the helmet and landed a few rows deep in the stands. Ben Cherington, the Sox' vice president of player personnel, noted that Natale (who was unhurt) didn't move before the ball hit him and didn't move after it hit him, which, Schilling said, is a sign of an undaunted hitter.

''The one thing I've always held firm is, if you're not comfortable in the box, you'll always be able to get out of the way," Schilling said. ''He didn't move. So he obviously wasn't expecting anything in, and that's a bad thing. When a hitter can get heavy feet and get comfortable in the box, it becomes a lot easier for them.

''I'm trying to pitch aggressively in now. It's something I've never, ever done, for any length of time in the past. It's something I've always needed to do. I've said in the past I would try it and do it and I've never really been efficient at it. I'm going to change that this year."

Schilling has purposefully thrown inside before (you might remember the message he delivered to Alex Rodriguez in the first inning of Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS). But he's never done so with regularity. Now, at age 38, after a humbling 2005, he believes he needs to expand his plate.

''Last year has something to do with it, getting kicked around as much as I did," said Schilling, who allowed three hits and fanned four yesterday, throwing 48 pitches. ''You get tired of it.

''I'm not trying to hit people. At the same time, hitters were very comfortable facing me last year, much more than in any year in the past. There's something you can do about that as a pitcher."

In general, he said, being able to scare the daylights out of people makes you better.

''I watched Pedro [Martínez] do it. I've seen RJ [Randy Johnson] do it. I watched [Roger] Clemens do it.

''The best pitch in the game is always going to be the fastball away. But it becomes much more effective or less effective depending upon how much of the inside of the plate you command. There were games [Martínez] didn't throw at anybody, and guys still had trouble getting to that outside corner because of that inherent concern. And it's not something anybody's ever had to worry about facing me."

With Martínez, when batters got hit, it wasn't an accident. ''You knew it," Schilling said. ''And he knew it."

Manager Terry Francona was rather amused by the topic. Told that Schilling worked on something new yesterday, Francona said, ''Working in? I heard he hit somebody in the head. That's in.

''Even when he was striking out 300, he was throwing 97 [miles per hour] away," said Francona, who is entering his seventh season managing Schilling, with Philadelphia and Boston. ''He didn't throw in much. The command he has, there wasn't really a reason to play with it."

But Schilling no longer throws 97, and he's forced to adapt. According to a radar gun, he sat on 91 m.p.h. yesterday, touching 93 once. He said he didn't feel his tempo and adrenaline, and thus his velocity, pick up until the second or third inning, ''which is a thing I need to work on."

He did spin off a few curveballs with notably late, and sharp, snap. And he threw two changeups that he felt ''were as good as I can throw it."

It's worth noting when Schilling threw those curveballs and changeups. He started one batter with a curveball for a called strike. He started another batter with a changeup for a called strike. To another batter, he went splitter-curveball-fastball, resulting in a fly out. The common theme: He pitched backward often. Rather than using his fastball to set up his other stuff, he used his other stuff to set up his fastball.

Apparently, he's going to need more tricks this year, though he contends he won't be any less of a power pitcher.

''I don't see myself changing," he said, ''just adding a changeup to what I have, hopefully just enhance the stuff I take out there."

That stuff, he said, ''is coming."

Opening Day, too, is coming. Schilling gets the ball in Texas in a mere 26 days.