BOSTON — His head slumped as if he had just nodded off. Curt Schilling hadn’t. Winning a World Series game to put your team up two games to none is no time to go to sleep. But the question made him roll his eyes so hard his head dropped off to the side.
A reporter in Thursday’s postgame news conference asked Schilling what his emotions were after possibly pitching his last game for the Boston Red Sox.
“I don’t have any,” he said. “I really don’t. I guarantee everybody is as sick of hearing it as I am. It seems like the last four or five games everybody is asking this could be, this could be. What happens is going to happen. … They know what I want and they know I want to come back and we’ll deal with that at the appropriate time.
“We’re trying to win a World Series so it makes it very, very easy not to even think about it.”
Schilling is the kind of pitcher you can always read by his body language. If he’s studying hitters on his laptop in the clubhouse, do not approach unless you enjoy sucking on Louisville Sluggers. He’s in the dugout tunnel struggling to get loose between innings, as manager Terry Francona saw in the sixth? It’s time to take him out.
And if he’s not getting teary eyed, emotional or philosophical bordering on Kant, you know he’s not thinking of the afterlife following baseball. He showed up at his news conference in a loose, gray-green polo shirt and never got choked up.
He also wore an ear-to-ear smile. His team stood two wins from his third world championship. Still, the way the Red Sox are blowing away the Rockies’ bats at a .180 average, Schilling may have pitched his last game for Boston.
His four-year, $52.5 million contract runs out this year and the Red Sox didn’t put themselves in position to win their second World Series title in four years by giving big-coin extensions to 41-year-olds, which he’ll be Nov. 14. If Boston doesn’t, who will? There’s no guarantee anyone will step forward, and there’s no guarantee he won’t retire unless he has the perfect situation.
Then again, Thursday’s performance showed he’s still one of the best clutch pitchers of our generation. He gave up four hits and one run in 5 1/3 innings. Too old? This postseason he’s 3-0 with a 3.00 ERA. In his career he’s 11-2 with a 2.23 and in his four seasons in Boston he’s 6-1 with a 3.28.
Any takers, folks?
“It’s well-known good pitching is going to handle good hitting in this game, and he’s got as much experience as anybody pitching in the game right now,” Colorado manager Clint Hurdle said.
Keep in mind Schilling isn’t flamethrower he was when he led Arizona to the 2001 Series title. Today he’s more like a intelligent bloodhound. His fastball has dropped from the high 90s to about 90, but his splitter still splits. And in a chess match against Colorado, its was checkmate early.
After giving up that first-inning run, Schilling only allowed three runners to reach second. Hideki Okajima bailed him out with two on in the sixth.
The Rockies had such high hopes. They drilled him here at Fenway Park on June 13, 12-2, but that was before he went on the disabled list from June 22-Aug. 6 with shoulder tendinitis.
“Going back to that first game, which I watched a couple times. Horrible execution,” Schilling said. “Physically, I was struggling.”
He doesn’t look as if he is now, which must give the Sox some pause. Listen to Francona and you wonder how they can let Schilling walk. Francona says he’s impressed with “his will to make sure the score ends up in our favor.”
Let’s see where everyone’s feelings stand this winter.
Classic Curt
Game 2 winning pitcher Curt Schilling added to his incredible postseason résumé. A look:
* Second pitcher over 40 to start and win a World Series game, joining Kenny Rogers of Detroit, who did so last year.
* Moved to 11-2 all time in postseason play in 19 career postseason starts, the highest winning percentage in history among pitchers with at least 10 postseason starts.
* Is 6-1 all time in postseason starts with the Red Sox.
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
