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No coffin talk

Curt Schilling won't have any of this "nail in the coffin" talk regarding Boston's series with the Yankees.

"I know we play them tonight," Schilling said in his weekly interview on WEEI's Dennis and Callahan show, "you're not going to get any of that. ... We're in a better spot than we were yesterday and a better spot than we were two days ago and we gotta play them tonight. This series is one of the few series that I've never felt like anything that happened leading up to it had any impact on it whatsoever. These games stand by themselves ...

"If there's a sweep either way it's 11- or five- [game lead]. If it's two out of three, it's seven or nine. That's huge. But, there's still thirty-some games left and I think everybody on both teams has been in extreme circumstances both ways. You don't take anything for granted."

Schilling was emphatic when asked if it mattered if the Red Sox win the division prior to heading into the postseason, as opposed to getting in as a wild card team.

"Yes. Yes ... I think there's some pride associated with winning the division, No. 1," said Schilling. "No. 2, the way it's set up now, the wild card home and road games in the postseason, it's advantageous to not be the wild card. As much as an effect as Fenway has on us, that's a pretty big deal."

Schilling was also surprised to see the Yankees go down so hard to the Tigers last night.

"I was expecting with everything that's going on with [Mike] Mussina, that he would pitch a good game," said Schilling regarding the struggling Yankees starter, who was hammered in the 16-0 Yankees loss. "He's going through a rough stretch, and much like here, you don't go through anything quietly up there."