CURT SCHILLING

A POWERFUL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM
Curt Schilling commanding in Angels victory

April 14, 2007 ... Curt Schilling demonstrated the pitcher he wants (or needs) to become. He kept his pitch count down. He got out of innings with ground balls or fly outs, not with strikeouts, of which he claimed just four. He walked a single batter.  And so, on a gray day in the Fens, Schilling controlled the Angels, pitching eight shutout innings for the first time since Sept. 21, 2004, and lasting eight for the first time since last June.

With a fastball consistently in the low 90s and topping out at 93 miles per hour, Schilling earned his second win of the season, getting plenty of help from his offense in an 8-0 decision before a crowd of 36,300. Brendan Donnelly finished up in the ninth.

Not that Schilling needed to be so good on a day when the Angels subbed Hector Carrasco for original starter Kelvim Escobar, who was placed on the 15-day disabled list Friday with irritation in his pitching shoulder. He got through his best battle, with Jose Molina in the seventh, in 11 pitches, the final one a 93-m.p.h. fastball that left him with enough gas - and enough room in his pitch count - to come out for the eighth. And Schilling got through that in 1-2-3 fashion. After setting down the side in order in each of the first two innings, Schilling allowed just one hit per inning over the next four, three singles and a double, all the hits he yielded in lowering his ERA to 2.84.

No Angel advanced farther than second base, Orlando Cabrera twice and Howie Kendrick once. With two outs in the fourth, after Cabrera singled to open the inning and advanced on a ground out, he was stranded when Shea Hillenbrand flied out to right. Cabrera doubled with one out in the sixth, but again was left at second when neither Vladimir Guerrero nor Garret Anderson could solve Schilling. Kendrick reached second on a walk and stolen base in the seventh, before Molina's strikeout.

The Sox got two runs in the third when Eric Hinske started the inning by sending a triple high off the wall in left-center, extending his hitting streak to 13 games (dating to Sept. 14). With two outs, J.D. Drew (intentionally) and Mike Lowell were walked, and Jason Varitek smoked a line drive to center, where it hit off the heel of Gary Matthews's glove and bounced away, scoring Hinske and Drew.

Boston tacked on another run in the fourth on a walk to Dustin Pedroia, a single up the middle by Hinske, a fielder's choice by David Ortiz that moved Pedroia to third, and a wild pitch that let the rookie second baseman come home.

In the sixth, Julio Lugo and Hinske were walked with two outs, bringing up Ortiz. On cue, Ortiz singled to right, plating Lugo with the Sox' fourth run. Manny Ramirez followed with a single to left to score Hinske.

Ortiz finished his afternoon in grand style in the eighth, sending a pitch from Greg Jones onto the black fabric in the center-field bleachers for a three-run home run that capped the scoring.

Since coming to the Sox from Cleveland in January 2006, other than the brief period before his finger was injured in the second series of last season, Crisp has yet to provide much in the way of offense. With an 0-for-3 outing Friday night leaving his average at just .111, Crisp sank into unhappiness. It was a game that was good for the batting average of just about every Red Sox player.

Wally the Green Monster blew out the candles on his 10th birthday cake before the game. Guests included Billy the Marlin, Bernie Brewer, the Padres' Friar, Lucky the Leprechaun, and Blades, the Bruins' mascot.