Jones said Schilling, who departed after giving up a three-run home run to catcher Brian McCann, had less velocity than the scouting reports led the Braves to expect. It's no secret, of course, that Schilling doesn't have the fastball of his youth, but in his dotage he had shown the capacity to summon it when most needed.
"The fastball that I saw register the highest was 89, and that was with the bases loaded," Jones said. "Schill always had that innate ability to catch another gear when he needs it, and for me to only see 89 miles an hour tells me, you know, he might be hurt. I don't know."
Schilling didn't explicitly dismiss that suggestion. Asked about his health, he said, "Like I said, it's not any one thing. I struggled, at least the last two starts, it's terrible. I'm better than that. It's frustrating."
Last night, he was a shell of the Schill who has won so many huge games in the course of his career, departing after McCann, who was born just two years before Schilling threw his first pitch as a professional, crushed a pitch into the right-center-field seats for a 6-1 lead.
"It was supposed to be a slider, down and in," Schilling said. "It backed up right over the middle."
Schilling gave up a run in the third, two in the fourth, and was gone with one out in the fifth, while Mike Timlin was touched for a two-run home run by Scott Thorman in the seventh.
The Sox lost badly despite Coco Crisp's first two-homer game in the big leagues and first four-hit game with the Red Sox, and another home run by J.D. Drew in his return to Atlanta, where he put up the best numbers of his career in 2004 (.305, 31, 93). Crisp, who hit twice as many home runs in his first three at-bats last night as he had in his first 227 at-bats this season, informed Sox PR chief John Blake he would not be commenting on what manager Terry Francona hopes was a breakout game.
"You hope so," Francona said. "Those were good swings, really good swings. The ball came off the bat with authority. He's played such great defense, throw in some offense . . ."
