It's Schill's turn

On paper -- not with an eye to stuff -- tonight's World Series Game 2 looks like a mismatch: Curt Schilling, one of the top playoff pitchers of all time, vs. Ubaldo Jimenez, a 23-year-old who wasn't called up until August.

But, for the Red Sox this season, unfamiliarity has been a problem. Stifled by some unknowns, the Sox seemed to have more trouble with rookies than they did with some of the bigger names in the game. They have already beaten up on such notables as John Lackey, C.C. Sabathia, and Fausto Carmona this postseason.

So what exactly can Jimenez bring? Well, a high-90s fastball, for one thing.

And he's got to bring it. Having lost a 13-1 blowout in their introduction to World Series baseball, the Rockies need to regroup before facing Schilling tonight or they might be heading back to the friendlier confines of Coors Field down two games to none. Their winning streak, which had lasted all of the postseason, was gone by last night, as they were crushed by the Red Sox. Whether that was because Boston has a superior team, or whether that was a factor of rust, could be determined tonight, when a win for Colorado could do the same thing it did for the Indians in the American League Championship Series.

Still, Schilling has managed to continue the success he has always had in the postseason, despite his own limitations, his own baseball mortality. He will be asked to do it at least one more time in this postseason, each start possibly his last for the Red Sox.

And if he does it again tonight, the Red Sox could be two games away from their second World Series win in four years.