Schilling right on target

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Curt Schilling looked as if he were in a hurry to rejoin his Boston teammates.

The 40-year-old righthander limited the Columbus Clippers to four hits in seven shutout innings, striking out four, during his third and final rehab start last night with the Triple A Pawtucket Red Sox.

Schilling, who is on the disabled list with right shoulder tendinitis, threw 77 pitches -- 60 for strikes, including first-pitch strikes to 23 of the 25 batters he faced in the PawSox' 5-4 win before 7,114 in Cooper Stadium.

"I want to be in Boston," said Schilling, who wasn't involved in the decision. "I answered every question I can answer. I'm healthy. I feel good. I feel strong and I'm ready to go back there and help them win games."

Schilling has not pitched in the majors since a 9-4 loss June 18 in Atlanta, where he failed to strike out a batter in a start for the first time since 1993. He will start for Boston Sunday afternoon in Seattle.

Until he faced Abraham Nunez leading off the fifth, Schilling did not go to a three-ball count. After falling behind, 3-and-0, he struck out Nunez on three pitches.

He fanned 18 and allowed neither a walk nor a run during his 15-inning rehab stint and dominated last night without having a good grasp of his No. 1 pitch, the split-finger fastball.

"Contrary to the first two when it was working exceptionally well, I couldn't get it down; I couldn't bounce it tonight," he said. "But when they made contact, I got some ground-ball outs instead of the swings and misses, so it worked out."

Pawtucket manager Ron Johnson made his only visit to the mound with two outs in the seventh, following a Nunez single.

"You can't really print [the discussion]," Schilling said. "We discussed how much longer I was going to be in the game."

A pitch later, George Lombard grounded to the mound to end the inning and Schilling's time with Pawtucket.

Schilling struck out Michael Restovich on three pitches to end the first inning. Kory Casto's ground out to second in the second started a span of 18 strikes in 19 pitches for Schilling, who needed just 10 pitches to retire the side in order in each of the second and third innings.

The three-time 20-game winner took his sparkling minor league performance in stride.

"I threw a lot of different pitches for strikes and I worked on my command on a lot of different pitches," he said. "[But] these innings don't count toward trying to win the pennant."

He reacted with more enthusiasm to the trade that sent Eric Gagne to Boston from the Rangers for Kason Gabbard and a pair of minor leaguers.

"I'm very excited for Kason -- he's a big league pitcher now," said Schilling. "To add Eric Gagne to what I thought was the best bullpen in the game already is huge."

"It was a weird day. I haven't been in Triple A on the trade deadline in a long, long time. "I've been in the locker room when my name was on the ticker and I got traded.