Sox taken deep Schilling is lit up for three homers

July 05, 2006|Chris Snow, Globe Staff

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Walk into the Devil Rays' clubhouse, canvass the room, and you will walk out with this conclusion: Personal feelings aside, there remains immense respect for 39-year-old Curt Schilling.

Talk to Ty Wigginton, whose solo shot leading off the Tampa Bay seventh snapped a 3-3 tie, propelling the Devil Rays toward a resounding 9-6 win, and he'll tell you his goal was merely to put bat on ball, not necessarily to put ball in seats. Talk to Jonny Gomes, who unloaded on an 0-and-1 splitter in the fourth, and he'll tell you he merely wanted to get the best of Schilling before Schilling put him in a defensive position.

``He threw an 0-0 fastball, which was probably the better pitch to hit," Gomes said. ``I thought to myself, `I don't want the at-bat to go too much further.' I was going to be real aggressive the next two pitches."

He was. His compact but spring-loaded swing sent a lingering splitter off the second catwalk in left-center. Gomes, talking to his teammates on the bench, estimated the blast to be 500 feet. Team staff estimated it to be 430 feet.

The distance matters far less than the statement those swings made: these Devil Rays -- maturing as a lineup and at long last healthy top to bottom with Rocco Baldelli, Jorge Cantu, and Gomes in the lineup at the same time -- can hit.

``Say what you want about the Tampa Bay Devil Rays," said Schilling, who certainly has over the years, ``but those are not the expansion Devil Rays any more. They have a very good lineup top to bottom, an AL offense that can hit. I would put that lineup against a lot of lineups in this league. When they get pitching they're going to win games."

They got pitching yesterday, in the form of former Sox lefthander Casey Fossum and three relievers. Fossum, for five innings and 100 pitches, was artistic, spotting breaking pitches where he needed, piling up eight strikeouts, including two of David Ortiz's on sweeping, mid-70s breaking balls. He allowed just four hits and only one run, on Gabe Kapler's homer with two outs in the fourth.

Kapler's at-bat was a memorable one. Fossum started him with an eephus pitch at 50 miles per hour for a called strike. Teammates said he throws about three of those per game. Kapler battled back to 3 and 1, then turned on an 87-m.p.h. fastball for his second homer of the season, pulling the Sox within 2-1 (they'd fallen behind on Julio Lugo's third-inning homer on a hanging Schilling curveball).

Loquacious Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon, on Lugo: ``He's our catalytic converter."

Gomes made it 3-1 in the fourth, with his 18th of the year and first since June 11. A towering shot off the catwalk, the homer was his sixth measuring 430 feet or more this season. Until then, he'd been 0 for 16 in his career against Schilling, with 11 whiffs.