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Baseball Today: Tuesday, July 17 »
July 16, 2007
BY SEAN McADAM
Journal Sports Writer
BOSTON -- It was, in all respects, a win-win day for the Red Sox yesterday.
In the afternoon, the team was encouraged by a simulated game thrown by Curt Schilling, who's been sidelined with a weak shoulder for exactly a month.
Then, in a bit of perfect symmetry, Kason Gabbard, Schilling's replacement in the rotation, threw the best game of his professional career, a three-hit, 4-0 shutout of the Kansas City Royals.
The effort was just the second complete game shutout for Red Sox starters this season. The other? That would be Schilling, of course, in his one-hitter in Oakland on June 7.
''That,'' concluded manager Terry Francona in admiration, ''was a well-pitched major league game. Right from the very first inning, he established his changeup to righties and his breaking ball to lefties and commanded his fastball with a lot of movement. He attacked the strike zone right from the first inning and got them in swing mode.
''He pitched a very, very solid game.''
Gabbard struck out a career-high eight and walked just one. He faced the minimum number of hitters in every inning but one in becoming the first Red Sox rookie to throw a nine-inning shutout since Paul Quantrill blanked Seattle on July 4, 1993. Not since John Curtis (1972) had a rookie lefty recorded a shutout.
''He did an excellent job,'' said catcher Jason Varitek, whom Gabbard singled out for his success. ''That was well-needed for the staff, to give the bullpen a rest.''
Gabbard had thrown 93 pitches after eight innings. The Sox had had lefty Hideki Okajima warming that inning, but Francona's faith in Gabbard never waivered.
''After the eighth,'' said Gabbard, ''they didn't come over and say anything. I didn't know how many pitches I had. (But the idea of a complete game) starts hitting you a little bit.
''The only complete games I've thrown were in high school. It's great to do it here, I'll tell you that, in fromt of these fans and some of my family, too. It's great.''
Gabbard, who struck out eight, fanned five of the first nine hitters he faced and didn't allow a hit until Emil Brown singled to right with one out in the fifth.
That inning, a walk and a two-out hit batsman loaded the bases for the Royals. But Gabbard got Tony Pena to hit a chopper behind the mound that second baseman Dustin Pedroia charged.
''I was playing up the middle,'' said Pedroia, ''so I got a good jump. Pena runs real well, so it was a matter of getting to the ball as quickly as I could.''
Pedroia's throw nipped Pena at first and Gabbard had escaped the only jam he would face.
In his five starts this season -- four since being inserted as a fill-in for Schilling -- the Sox have won three times. In another start, the Sox lost in 13 innings after Gabbard had limited the Detroit Tigers to just two runs in 6 1/3 innings.
Schilling may be only two weeks away from returning to his spot, but Gabbard seemed unfazed by the prospect of surrendering his role.
''My next start is Saturday,'' he said, ''and I'm going to prepare for that. I'm going to pitch when they tell me to. I'm going to do what they tell me to. That's all I can do. I'm not worried about it.''
With performances like this, he shouldn't. It's conceivable that when Schilling returns, Gabbard could remain in the rotation by bumping the struggling Julian Tavarez into the bullpen.
Gabbard got all the support he needed when Dustin Pedroia and Manny Ramirez launched solo homers in the fourth.
''The pitch to Pedroia,'' said Kansas City starter Brian Bannister, ''was exactly where I wanted it to be. It was letter-high, but he just swung up and got enough of the barrel of the bat on it.''
The Sox doubled their margin of comfort in the sixth when Pedroia singled with one out and David Ortiz drove a pitch into the seats in right.
Of the Ortiz clout -- the Sox DH's second homer in the last three days -- Bannister ruefully conceded: ''I got my first taste of the Pesky Pole.''
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