Lester checks out just fine

NEW YORK -- Even before he took the mound for his latest rehabilitation assignment last night in Pawtucket, R.I., Jon Lester had received good news. According to Red Sox manager Terry Francona, Lester's three-month checkup Thursday in the aftermath of his treatment for cancer went well.

"He had a real good day, an exciting day," Francona said of Lester, who was diagnosed last August with a form of anaplastic large cell lymphoma, a blood cancer. The 23-year-old lefthander underwent six rounds of chemotherapy treatments, the last in December, and doctors said his cancer was in remission.

Lester's rehab assignment began with Single A Greenville April 5 and he made three starts for the Drive, going 0-0 with a 2.08 ERA (13 IP, 11 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 15 K).

Lester began last season with the PawSox and was 3-4 with a 2.70 ERA in 11 starts. In his last six starts for the PawSox, before his call-up to the Red Sox June 10, he was 3-0 with a 0.90 ERA.

Last night, in a game delayed a half-hour by rain, Lester was superb in five scoreless innings, allowing just three hits while striking out six and not walking a batter in Pawtucket's 5-1 win over Buffalo. He threw 84 pitches, 56 for strikes. He topped out at 95 miles per hour, with his last pitch a 94-m.p.h. fastball.

"It's good to get the first one under my belt, let the reins off a little bit, throw a few more pitches," Lester told reporters after the game.

"When you get up here, you get the adrenaline going a little more, you face a little better hitter, a little better lineup. The competition is better, so that helps you speed up your arm."

On his tests, Lester said: "I went to Dana Farber. Everything came up well. Everything looked good. So I take it three months at a time and go from there."

Lester is scheduled to make another start for the PawSox at McCoy Stadium Wednesday. His 30-day rehab assignment ends later in the week, and the Sox will option him to Pawtucket or recall him to the big leagues. They have not signaled their intentions, but a return to Yawkey Way would surprise no one.

The Lester Project, begun by five Boston-area college women, remains active. They're selling silicone awareness bracelets on their website, thelesterproject.com, that read, "Striking Out Cancer," with all proceeds going to the Jimmy Fund in Lester's name. Their vision is that thousands of fans will wear the bracelet (cost: $6) when Lester returns to the Sox.

The bloodied sock Curt Schilling wore in Game 2 of the 2004 World Series is in a display case in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. But what of the "other" sock, the original, the one he wore here in Game 6 of the '04 American League Championship Series?

Louis Cucuzza, the visiting clubhouse manager at Yankee Stadium, knows where it is.

"It's in the garbage," Cucuzza said.

It was a simple sanitary sock, Cucuzza said. And, yes, he said, it was bloody.

"Maybe if it was one of those two-in-one socks they wear now, we would have kept it," Cucuzza said. "But it was just a sanitary sock."

So, what happened when Schilling removed the sock?

"One of my kids picked it up," Cucuzza said, "and said, 'Wash it or toss it?'

"I said, 'Toss it.' "

On his blog Thursday night, Schilling addressed the fallout from the on-air assertion made by Orioles broadcaster Gary Thorne Wednesday night that the bloody sock was painted, for public relation purposes, and that Doug Mirabelli had told him so.

The next day, Thorne spoke with Mirabelli and said he was mistaken about what was said, but did not speak with Schilling, though he said he passed along his phone number to Sox media relations boss John Blake.

On his blog, Schilling exonerated Mirabelli ("I knew he didn't say it") and trashed Thorne, writing he covered himself by "lying" about the conversation and "twisting it in a way that absolved him from blame."

He also pilloried the media in general.

Schilling also made a proposal that had been suggested on the chat board, Sons of Sam Horn, earlier that day. "Someone gave me a great idea to end this once and for all," he wrote. "No one will ever need to bring it up again. I'll wager $1 million to the charity of anyone's choice, versus the same amount to ALS. If the blood on the sock is fake, I'll donate a million dollars to that person's charity, if not, they donate that amount to ALS. Any takers?"

Brad Horn, the director of communications for the Hall of Fame, yesterday addressed the issue of testing the sock.

"There were calls for forensic scientists to come up and snag a few of the hair fibers out of the sock that were tainted with blood to see if that could be tested and proved," Horn said in a statement. "We had absolutely no interest in that, the artifact will not be tested.

"Curt Schilling's word with us is golden. He has always been someone who is very keen and aware of baseball history."

Mike Lowell ran his hitting streak to 13 games, going 1 for 4 in last night's 11-4 series-opening victory over the Yankees. He has hit .360 (18 for 50) with four home runs and 15 RBIs during the streak, raising his average from .233 to .313. Lowell has 19 RBIs this month, his most in any month since he had 19 with the Marlins in April 2004 . . . Mike Mussina (hamstring) threw on the side yesterday and is on track to return to the Yankees' rotation Thursday . . . Portland center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury continued his spectacular start last night, going 4 for 4 -- all singles -- and reaching base when he was hit by a pitch. Ellsbury, who also stole his sixth base, is batting .468 for the Double A Sea Dogs.

Gordon Edes can be reached at edes@globe.com.