As it turned out, Schilling needed more time to heal before he faced the Yankees in the crucial opener of their best-of-seven American League Championship Series.
What now?
In an injury-shortened outing that raised questions about how effective he may be the rest of the way, Schilling survived only three stressful innings as the Yankees thumped him for six runs en route to a 10-7 victory before 56,135 on 161st Street. On the night Schilling hoped to "shut up" the sellout crowd, he instead endured the ignominy of the masses chanting, "Who's your daddy?"
"The bell rang and I couldn't answer it," Schilling said, acknowledging that the injury prevented him from generating the power he needed to drive off the mound. "I've been looking forward to this for almost a year, so it's very disappointing, but it's one game and it's over."
The only consolation was a rousing comeback attempt in which the Sox weathered 6 1/3 perfect innings from Yankee starter Mike Mussina to close within 8-7 and bring the go-ahead run to the plate in the eighth. Even after they fell behind, 10-7, in the eighth, the Sox put the tying run at the plate in the ninth before Bill Mueller grounded into a game-ending double play against Mariano Rivera.
"It was a tough game to lose," Manny Ramirez said, "but at least we let them know we can come back at any time."
The question is, will Schilling's injury prevent him from coming back in the series? He said he would know more about his condition today and declined to speculate on whether he could make his next scheduled start in Game 5, if necessary.
"If I can't go out there with something better than what I had today, I'm not going back out there," he said. "This is not about me braving through something. This is about us and winning the world championship, and if I can't give them better than I had today, I won't take the ball again."
