Yeah, well, that was Curt (Top Of The Rotation) Schilling, all right.
Eight innings. Five hits. One run. Six K's. No walks. Walks? How about two three-ball counts? Ninety-nine (99) pitches (I see an endorsement coming).
And that was also Curt (Brutally Honest) Schilling, all right.
``This is a team wracked with injury," he pointed out. ``They've lost some very significant people. That's not going to be the same team the next time we see them. We have to take advantage of it now."
Someone actually asked him what ``effect" the missing players had on the Yankee lineup.
``What `effect?' " he responded. ``Who's playing right for [Gary] Sheffield? Who's playing for [Hideki] Matsui? That's a drastically different team. It's no knock on the guys out there, but they're missing All-Star players. It says a lot about them that they've been battling and hanging in the way they have."
It may not have been a ``drastically" improved Schilling on display last night in comparison to the one who has presented himself for our perusal in his last five starts, but it surely was a vastly improved model. Entering last night's 9-5 conquest (about the Yankee ninth vs. Keith Foulke: don't ask), Schilling had been 2-2 with a 6.53 ERA in the five starts following his impressive 4-0 start. Included in there were the infamous back-to-back games with three home runs allowed.
So, yeah, there were questions being thrown at Terry Francona concerning his aging ace. Now the skipper would like to think he's done answering them and can move on to something else like, ``What are you going to do for a fifth starter if David Wells is lit up on Friday night?"
``I hope I am [done answering]," said Francona. ``I thought he threw excellent. His split was very good. When he has his good split, it just makes it easier for him to be effective. He can be effective, but he has to work harder when he doesn't have that split."
Last night Schilling never seemed to be working hard. He started the game with a tidy (and uncharacteristic) nine-pitch first inning, and that set the tone.
``It wasn't one specific thing, but a lot of little things," he said. ``It all starts with the tempo."
You take away the end of the third inning, and he was flat-out dominant. It took the Yankees 10 batters to get ahead of him in any meaningful way, that occurring when Johnny Damon got the count to 2-and-1 with two away in the third. Melky Cabrera was on base via a first-pitch opposite-field double into the left-field corner, and he would score when Damon hit that 2-and-1 pitch into right field for a single.
