Byline: CHRIS SNOW Boston Globe
Red Sox 7
Rangers 3
ARLINGTON, Texas - In seven spring games against players on assorted levels, not a single Curt Schilling pitch eclipsed 94 miles per hour, and few even touched that number. For three innings against the Texas Rangers Monday, the big right-hander again held steady, operating between 90 and 93.
And then, inexplicably, even to Schilling himself, it came, the stuff that made Schilling a power pitcher, not the guy who in camp was hitting people in the helmet attempting to retake the inner half of the plate while also teaching himself a change-up, both apparent attempts at remaking himself at age 39.
With one down in the fourth inning, Schilling dialed it up to 94, getting Phil Nevin to line out. Schilling unleashed an 0-2 heater at 95 that Hank Blalock swung through. With two down in the fifth, Schilling painted a 2-2 hummer at 96 to Brad Wilkerson, a borderline pitch that umpire Gary Darling called south. Still, Schilling went back to the heat, got Wilkerson to pop out, and kept bringing it. By the end of seven innings, he'd thrown three fastballs at 96, five at 95, and eight at 94, among his 117 pitches, in leading the Red Sox to a commanding 7-3 Opening Day win (the club's first since 2000) before 51,541, the largest gathering at Ameriquest Field.
'This,' Jason Varitek said of Schilling's day (seven innings pitched, five hits, two runs, five strikeouts, one walk, one home run), 'will stop a lot of questions. Curt set the tone for us, big-time.'
So did David Ortiz, banging a fifth-inning Kevin Millwood offspeed pitch high off the yellow stick in right, and later doubling to the wall in right-center, knocking in another run. And, for one day at least, the play here answered several questions about the off-season acquisitions. Six of the nine players in Monday's lineup did not start on Opening Day 2005, and most of the new ones stood up to be counted.
Coco Crisp struck out twice at the hands of Millwood but reached in the fifth and seventh, and scored from first both times. Mark Loretta, the 12th Sox second baseman to start on Opening Day since 1994, doubled to the wall in right-center in the fifth, knocking in Crisp. Mike Lowell, who last season had only two home runs as late as June 9, lined a ball an estimated 364 feet to left in the eighth for his first career Opening Day home run.
'Since Day 1,' said Lowell, 'I've said I believe I'm the player of six years ago, not last year.'
Even Alex Gonzalez, who went six-for-March, laced two balls for opposite-field singles.
'This,' Schilling said, 'was some guys coming as advertised.'
Schilling himself came far better than advertised. When they cut open his abused ankle in November 2004, the doctors told Schilling he'd need 18 full months to recover. Last year he was average (8-8, 5.69 ERA), and this spring he allowed six runs on 10 hits in his only two big league starts. Monday, 17 months removed from a Mass. General table, Schilling was pitching with command.
Jon Papelbon pitched a clean eighth and Keith Foulke, who allowed a single and a double, closed out the ninth.
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LINDA KAYE/ASSOCIATED PRESS BOSTON'S CURT SCHILLING unleashesa pitch against Texas. He went seven innings, struck out five and allowed two runs in the win.
