Once again we see a very strong performance out of our ace Curt Schilling and our new "closer" Jonathan Papelbon.
Schilling pitched a gem of a game yesterday against the Orioles. He logged seven innings, struck out four, walked two, and gave up three hits. His only run of the game came off of a Luis Matos home run ball.
Other than that, Schilling was spot on. Some people may be worried that his strikeouts are down (nine in 14 innings), but I'm just happy he's getting outs. Maybe this is his year he moves away from being a power pitcher. And instead of getting the strikeouts, he'll get the groundouts and just keep hitters off base. Do we want to see that?
Papelbon, once again, was called into the game during the 9th inning with the score 2-1 for the Sox. He faced Miguel Tejada, Jay Gibbons and, fittingly, Kevin Millar. After getting Tejada and Gibbons out, Papelbon went toe to toe with Millar. He was chuckin' -- 97 on the gun at one point -- and he struck Millar out to finish it off.
Should Papelbon be the closer for now? I believe so. But if we're just waiting for Foulke to come around after pitching in blow-outs, we may not see him too much. It'll be interesting to see who closes out the games for the rest of the season, but for now it is going to be Papelbon. The right choice (look at the poll!).
Sox finish the series with the O's today at 1:35. Let's hope for the sweep.