Including last night, when he left trailing, 6-3, in a 7-3 loss, he is 1-2 with a 6.20 ERA in his last four starts. He allowed 17 hits (two of them homers) in 28 innings through four starts. He's allowed 31 hits (five of them homers, three of those last night) in 24 2/3 innings covering his last four games, at Cleveland and Tampa Bay, home vs. Baltimore, and last night before 54,769 at Yankee Stadium.
Last night was particularly painful for Schilling, who was staked to leads of 2-0 and 3-0. David Ortiz, 2 for 24 in his last six games entering last night, was 4 for 4, with the swing of greatest consequence coming in his initial at-bat, with Mark Loretta aboard.
Against reborn Mike Mussina, who came in 5-1 with a 2.35 ERA, Ortiz engaged in a mesmerizing at-bat, fouling off three full-count fastballs before Mussina made a mistake, leaving an 89-mile-per-hour fastball over the inside half of the plate.
Ortiz, who doesn't miss in that locale, lost it in the upper deck in right for his 12th homer of the season and a 2-0 lead.
Mike Lowell tacked on another run, on his third homer of the year, with one out in the second inning. Beginning with last Thursday's game, Lowell has nine hits and not a single among them (eight doubles, one homer).
And with that the feeling in the Red Sox dugout was universal.
Manager Terry Francona put it one way: ''[Mussina] came in so hot, and it was so encouraging that we swung the bats like that early. We get a three-run lead and we feel like huge advantage to us."
Schilling put it similarly: ''Ortiz has a phenomenal at-bat in the first inning to get us up, 2-0, Mikey Lowell hits a home run to get us up, 3-0. The way Mike's pitching you don't expect much more to happen. I felt like I had everything working.
''I gave it, and they took it back."
He gave it quickly, with several expensive mistakes.
''A night full of them," Schilling said. ''Pick one."
Francona succinctly accounted for them.
''[He] left a cutter over to [Jason] Giambi, two-run homer," the manager said. ''Fastball to Alex [Rodriguez] over the middle of the plate, homer. Changeup to [Jorge] Posada, two-run homer. That's five runs."
