01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, April 4, 2006

BY SEAN McADAM
Journal Sports Writer

ARLINGTON, Texas -- In the box seats behind the home-team dugout yesterday, the Red Sox could look over and see a brilliant part of their past. Roger Clemens, who won 192 games and three Cy Young Awards as a member of the Red Sox, watched their opener, a guest of Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks.

Out on the mound, Curt Schilling was turning back the hands of time, too, to a time when he could deliver his fastball in the mid-90s and not have to worry about his ailing ankle.

"This," Schilling would conclude later, "was like I felt in 2002."

Certainly, Schilling bore little resemblance yesterday to the pitcher he was a year ago, when he competed tentatively on his surgically-repaired ankle and seldom reached 90 mph on the radar gun. He felt better than he did in 2004, when while willing the Red Sox to a title, he required shots to numb the problematic ankle.

"He got stronger as he went deeper," said Terry Francona after Schilling and the Sox had rolled over the Texas Rangers, 7-3, "and looked like the Curt that I remember."

Schilling threw 117 pitches -- an ambitious workload at any point, much less Opening Day -- and limited a strong Texas lineup to two runs on five hits over seven innings.

Inexplicably, Schilling's velocity got better as the game wore on. After topping out at 91-92 mph in the first few innings, he got to 96 mph in the middle innings.

"I felt strong," said Schilling, who improved to 3-0 with a 2.93 E.R.A. in six Opening Day starts. "This was huge. I spent all spring trying to figure out (where I was) and not really knowing until I got here."

Schilling retired 14 of the first 16 hitters he faced before allowing a two-out single to Rod Barajas and a walk to Ian Kinsler in the fifth. In that frame, he ran his pitch count up and cost himself any chance of recording a complete game.

Remarkably, Schilling was dominant yesterday without having a good split-finger fastball. "I couldn't get it going in the game," he said. "I wasn't confident going to it. It didn't feel good."

He threw an occasional changeup, but mostly relied almost entirely on his fastball and trademark command.

"He located his pitches pretty doggone well," said catcher Jason Varitek.

The fastball was good enough to get him three strikeouts in the first five batters faced, and in the middle of the game, became even more explosive.

"A couple of pitches in the fourth had something extra to them," Schilling said.

In something of a paradox, that posed a new problem for Schilling, who began to overthrow some. In the sixth, he yielded a single to Phil Nevin and a two-run homer down the right field line to Hank Blalock.

"Sometimes, velocity can be a double-edged sword," said Schilling.

Getting to Texas starter Kevin Millwod the second time around the order, the Sox provided Schilling two runs in the fifth on Varitek's double, which scored Ortiz and Trot Nixon. After Mark Loretta doubled home Coco Crisp from first in the fifth, David Ortiz hammered a pitch that struck near the top of the right field foul pole.

"I don't know what the (pitch) was," said Ortiz, who later added a run-scoring double to the gap in right-center. "Something over the plate."

"Top of the foul pole, that's impressive," said Crisp, shaking his head.

The victory featured contributions from several newcomers. Crisp scored two runs and, in the ninth, tracked down a long fly ball by Laynce Nix with a leaping grab on the warning track.

Loretta had the RBI-double, Alex Gonzalez has two hits and Mike Lowell celebrated his American League debut with a solo homer to start the eighth.

"Today was a good day," said Francona. "We talked about how we wanted things to go today and it pretty much went as planned. We scored first and really got a solid outing out of Curt today. A lot of good things happened."

None better than the start from Schilling, who, this time a year ago, was on the disabled list. Yesterday, he went back to the future and felt as good as he has in four years.

"Curt set the tone big-time for us," said Varitek. "If he throws the ball like he did today, he's going to give us a chance to win a lot of games. He had good location, strength and he was able to drive through the zone."

Just like old times.

smcadam@projo.com / (401) 277-7340