April 6, 2004

Red Sox 4, Orioles 1. Curt Schilling pitches six strong innings and the bullpen does the rest. But first, take a look at the box score:

"SB: Palmeiro (1, 2nd base off Schilling/Varitek); Burks (1, 2nd base off DeJean/Lopez, J)."

Two stolen bases -- by two 39-year-old players!

Schilling's adrenaline was running high in the first inning. "I over-threw a couple of pitches. ... I realized it right away and tried to settle down. I never felt like I kind of relaxed today and got comfortable." Schilling retired the Orioles in order in the first inning, hitting 93-96 with his fastball. After allowing two singles with one out in the second, he got BJ Surhoff to tap back to the mound for a 1-6-3 double play.

Schilling threw a first-pitch strike to the first 10 Orioles (and 18 of the 24 batters he faced). Baltimore fouled off a lot of pitches (I counted 30) and that was the main reason Schilling's day ended after 109 pitches and six innings. He ended his final inning by striking out Javy Lopez and Jay Gibbons. Schilling's pitch count by innings: 14 11 24 19 20 21.

Alan Embree in the 7th: Segui (bbcf) K, Bigbie (b) F8, Matos 5-3.
Mike Timlin in the 8th: Roberts (bbcbc) 4-3, Mora (bb) F8, Tejada (b) F8.
Keith Foulke in the 9th: Palmeiro (ccb) 6-3, Lopez F9, Gibbons (ccb) K.

On Mora's fly out in the 8th, Damon collided with RF Kevin Millar in right center. Damon hit Millar's nose/mouth with his shoulder. Millar (who hit his first home run of the year in the 4th) seemed only dazed, but he left the game. Manny Ramirez left after 7 innings with a bruised right quad. ... Ramirez, Jason Varitek and Mark Bellhorn walked twice each -- the Red Sox worked a total of 8 walks.

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