Hard-throwing Curt Schilling changes his recent fortunes by leaning on his changeup, keeping the Rays off balance.
By DAMIAN CRISTODERO
Published August 4, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling came at the Rays with everything he had in the ninth inning. Two pitches hit 93 mph. Three smoked at 94, including his last, which got Geoff Blum to pop out to third to end the game.
But the story of Schilling's dominating six-hit, seven-strikeout effort, the cornerstone of Boston's 5-2 victory Tuesday at Tropicana Field, was really written eight innings earlier and came at a much more leisurely pace.
"The second pitch of the game," Boston catcher Jason Varitek said, "was a changeup."
There were more after that as Schilling decided to rely less on what has been an inconsistent split-finger fastball. And just like that, an arm of power and fury turned, at times, anyway, into one of finesse and guile.
"For four months now, I have not had my split for an entire start, much less over a period of starts," Schilling said. "I got tired of waiting for it to come around. In lieu of that I need something. I've been working on my changeup for a while and just said I'm finally going to throw it. I probably threw it more in a game than I have in my career. It was a good pitch."
"He got a lot of cheap outs with it," Varitek said.
Or was it that Schilling made the Rays pay?
The right-hander threw 86 of his 116 pitches for strikes and was so sharp that he retired 12 straight batters in a streak that ended with Blum's two-out single in the fifth.
And when he did fire up a fastball, it was location, location, location.
"He was good," Tampa Bay's Aubrey Huff said. "His game plan was to stay away, stay away, stay away. The fastballs I did get to hit were pretty much right on the outside corner. He didn't go in with his fastball and kept me off balance with his changeup and curveball."
One mistake was a grooved sixth-inning fastball that Rocco Baldelli blasted over the leftfield fence to make the score 5-1. Huff batted next and launched a shot to the leftfield wall that Manny Ramirez snagged with a lunging grab to end the inning.
"That was huge," Schilling said. "Those are momentum changers. Coming on the heels of the home run, they would have got something going. They could have made it a game. Those are the things that don't show up that change the way games finish and who wins and who loses."
No surprise Schilling used the Rays to get healthy. He is 3-0 this season against Tampa Bay and 3-0 all-time at the Trop.
It couldn't have come at a better time for Schilling, who is 13-5 but lost his previous start and had a no-decision in the one before while allowing 11 earned runs and striking out just 10.
And it might be just the right time for the Red Sox, whose consecutive victories over the Rays softened a stretch in which Boston had lost three of four.
"You want to be part of the cure instead of part of the problem," Schilling said. "Starting pitching-wise we've been pitching very, very well, and you want to keep that momentum going. We can put ourselves on a serious role, but it's going to take consistency to do that. I want to be part of that."
