His outing lasts just 37 pitches over three innings against a lineup up mostly Red Sox prospects, but Curt Schilling calls it "a breakthrough day."

01:00 AM EST on Tuesday, March 22, 2005

BY SEAN McADAM
Journal Sports Writer

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- In front of what was surely -- unofficially at least -- the largest crowd ever for a intra-squad minor-league exhibition game, Curt Schilling yesterday took his biggest step of the spring yesterday, continuing to ready himself for the regular season.

With several hundred fans and two dozen reporters, Schilling threw three innings to a team made up mostly of Red Sox prospects, some of whom were barely out of diapers when the pitcher's major-league career began.

Schilling gave up two runs on three hits, totaling 37 pitches -- 24 for strikes -- and pronounced himself more than satisfied.

"Today, to me, was a very big day," said Schilling. "You could call it a breakthrough day, in a sense. Everything I was hoping would happen, happened. I didn't have any issues."

On Field 3 of the Red Sox' minor-league complex, in front of a two bleachers full of autograph-seekers and the merely curious, Schilling needed just six pitches to record three outs in the first.

He was nearly as efficient in the second, getting an infield popup, a double by Dave Berg, another infield popup and finishing off the inning with a called third strike of minor-league outfielder Justin Sherrod.

After giving up a leadoff double to Bill Mueller -- who led off every inning to get additional at-bats --

Schilling got a groundout. He then hung a split-finger fastball to Chip Ambres, who smacked a two-run homer, prompting Schilling to curse loudly as he got a new ball from the home-plate umpire.

But Schilling finished well, getting both Simon Pond and Mike Moriarty on strikes to finish his brief -- but significant -- outing.

"Good deal," said pitching coach Dave Wallace, who watched the outing, then scurried to meet the major-league team across the state in Vero Beach. "He had his normal delivery. He made a couple of mistakes with his location, but that's to be expected."

Wallace said the movement on Schilling's split-finger pitch, often the best offering in his arsenal, was "pretty good. It's just not consistent yet. But the good thing is that (the movement) is there."

Wallace was pleased that Schilling was able to get over toward first on a grounder to the right side of the infield, and executed a pickoff attempt -- the kinds of situations that can't be duplicated in side sessions.

Mueller and catcher Jason Varitek were impressed with the quality of Schilling's stuff and his endurance.

"By the time he got to the third inning," Varitek said, "he was a little stronger with his fastball. Hopefully, he feels pretty good about himself."

"His ball started to have life on it in (my) third at-bat," Mueller said.

"I threw the ball with a little more velocity (than last time)," Schilling said. "I threw a lot more balls that felt normal than anytime in (recent) outings. . . . I was ready to throw 40-50 pitches -- I used them all. And I gave up a home run on a pitch I could throw in August."

He still experiences occasional "stiffness" in his surgically repaired ankle, and is prepared to deal with some level of discomfort for the next year or so. Some swelling exists in the area of his Achilles tendon, but it's hardly a concern.

The timetable calls for Schilling to pitch again as soon as Thursday, probably in another minor-league setting. From there, he could make his Grapefruit League debut in another two or three days.

There exists the possibility, too, that Schilling could pitch one of the two final exhibition games of the spring when the Sox travel to his home in Phoenix to play the Arizona Diamondbacks on March 31 and April 1.

Schilling intends to be with his teammates in New York for the season-opener April 3, then return here the following day to throw another game in camp.

Though he long ago ruled himself out of his April 3 assignment, Schilling wouldn't firmly shut the door on the possibility that he could start the team's home-opener -- also against the Yankees -- on April 11.

"I don't know," he said when asked if he could make that start. "You kind of have to feel your way through this."

When questioned whether he would, at bottom, be ready by April 17 -- when the Sox first need a fifth starter thanks to scheduled off-days -- he also demurred.

"We're looking too far ahead," he said. "I've said, the first day I'm available to pitch in the big leagues, I want to pitch."