Schilling commands spotlight

Against an aggressive lineup -- including Vladimir Guerrero, the most swing-happy Angel of them all -- Schilling mixed his pitches well in going eight shutout innings for the first time since Sept. 21, 2004.

"There are counts and situations where I used to be a four-seam fastball guy and maybe that's not the best pitch anymore," Schilling said. "If it's not going to be a fastball, it's still got to be a strike when you're behind in the count. That's where the changeup, the curveball, and the slider come in.

"Today, they made a lot of early outs. We knew they'd be aggressive. It's a very aggressive lineup top to bottom, but you've got to locate to make that work."

Which he did, demonstrating the pitcher he wants (or needs) to become. He kept his pitch count down. Schilling got out of innings with ground balls or fly outs, not with strikeouts, of which he claimed just four. He walked one.

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. Not when it took just two innings for Carrasco to throw 45 pitches, a total Schilling reached in the fifth.

He got through his best battle, with Jose Molina in the seventh , in 11 pitches, the final one a 93-mile-per-hour fastball that left him with enough gas -- and enough room in his pitch count -- to come out for the eighth, though even that was in question after a 28-pitch seventh. He had a short leash in the eighth, but retired the Angels 1-2-3.

"He threw strikes, he stayed out of the middle, and he really stayed out of a certain area or a pattern the whole day," manager Terry Francona said. "Changed locations, changed speeds, changed pitches on all the hitters right from the beginning, and didn't give anybody the same look or fall into a pattern. Did a great job with that."