Sox get lift from Schilling

SEATTLE -- Although most contenders were in the market for one, only four starting pitchers were moved before the trading deadline, and only one (Kyle Lohse) went to a contender (Phillies).

The Braves gave up Kyle Davies for Royals reliever Octavio Dotel, the Red Sox sent Kason Gabbard to the Rangers for reliever Eric Gagne, and the Giants sent Matt Morris to the Pirates for outfielder Rajai Davis in a deal that few people outside of the respective front offices involved can figure out.

Imagine, then, what it would mean to the Sox to acquire the services of a pitcher who not once, but twice in the last six years was practically unbeatable from August till October and carried two teams to World Series championships. And, instead of having to give up some combination of Clay Buchholz, Jacoby Ellsbury, Manny Delcarmen, and the Iroquois, John Henry's 164-foot yacht, to get him, such a pitcher would cost the Sox nothing in return.

Fantasy island? No, 38pitches.com. Curt Schilling, out of major league action since June 18 with shoulder tendinitis, returns to the Sox rotation tomorrow night in Anaheim, Calif., after surely one of the greatest rehab stints in the uncharted history of such endeavors (15 scoreless innings, 18 whiffs, 2 lobster-and-steak postgame spreads for his appreciative temporary teammates in Pawtucket). And while Schilling, at 40, can't point at past track record as a predictor of what is to come, he still bears more than a passing resemblance to the pitcher who with Arizona in 2001 and the Sox in 2004 was a difference-maker.

Does he feel like he's starting the season all over again? "No," he said. "Too much has happened."

But after an absence of nearly seven weeks, Schilling, who took to heart the stern admonitions from the front office and medical staff that he could no longer be as casual as he'd been about the care and maintenance of his valuable right shoulder, said he feels as strong and refreshed as he has in some time.

"My splitter was better than it's been in years," Schilling said in Toledo after the second of his three rehab starts, and nothing that went on in his final tuneup in Columbus, in which he threw a stunning 23 first-pitch strikes to 25 batters, dissuaded him of that notion.

"A stud?" manager Terry Francona said when asked whether such a description might still be apt for Schilling. "I don't think he's going back to the days when he threw 95 miles an hour. But we think he can be a very good pitcher."

Assuming Schilling adheres to regular rest, he is penciled in to make two starts against the Angels, leaders of the AL West, and two against the Yankees, Boston's pursuers in the AL East.

In 1988, when the Sox won the AL East in the summer of Morgan Magic, the club made a significant trading deadline deal for a starting pitcher, acquiring Mike Boddicker, who went 7-3 with a 2.63 ERA after coming from the Orioles. But the price paid by Lou Gorman was high. He gave up two prospects who made it to the big leagues. One was outfielder Brady Anderson. The other? Curt Schilling.

Now, almost 20 years later, Schilling's about to launch a possible division-clinching stretch run of his own.