"His preparation has always been off the charts," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said before last night's 13-1 laugher, and there seemed a twinge of hope in his voice. "That has never changed or wavered. If anything it's probably gotten better."
As Schilling said minutes before, it had to. The days when he could blast 97 mph fastballs past people the way Beckett did at the start of last night's Game 1 - and anytime he ran into trouble - are gone, dissolved by an accumulation of injuries, and years.
"I think in '04, what he did in '04, everybody knew that he would pay a price physically," Francona said. "And he did. He came back in '05 and it was hard for him."
No harder than this season, as the former Phillies ace recreated himself into a control pitcher. In 12 regular-season starts, Schilling allowed two runs or less. In six others, he allowed at least five runs. The playoffs followed that pattern as well, Schilling following a stellar start against the Angels in the Division Series with a disastrous outing in Game 2 of the Championship Series, followed by a two-run, seven-inning stint in Game 6, when the Sox scored 10 runs in the first three innings.
"The frustrating part of it is gone," said Schilling, who will turn 41 next month. "I think what it really has done is placed a lot more emphasis on the preparation aspect of it, and the amount of time and effort I have to put into watching video and going through the scouting reports . . . Where I used to be able to exploit with one pitch exclusively, now I've got to be able to use multiple pitches in different spots."
