Breaking news: Curt Schilling flirts with no-hitter

The Boston Red Sox, Curt Schilling, flirted with history but came up short in the ninth with two outs before giving up a hard hit single to the Oakland A's leftfielder, Shannon Stewart. Schilling lost a perfect game back in the fifth inning, when Julio Lugo botched a lazy ground ball from Dan Johnson. So Schilling failed to get what would've been his first career no-hitter, but in hindsight the Red Sox did win the game, 1-0.

Another side note on Schilling's day to show how dominating he was, he pitched a complete game, one hitter and only had to throw 100 pitches, very impressive.

Andruw Jones reaches a new low...

Davey here again, still on pinch-hitting duties...

The Braves just finished a very odd series with the Red Sox, one that included a rain-delay, a postponed game, 2 blow-outs and Andruw Jones striking out 5 times in the series finale.

Friday's game got rained out, which led to a day/night double header on Saturday in which noth teams took turns in clobbering each other. In game one, Dice-K predictably out-pitched Anthony Lerew as the Sox fisted the Braves 13-3.

In game two, the roles reversed as John Smoltz threw pure filth as Atlanta comfortably won 14-0. The offense strutted its testicles as they combined for 12 extra-basehits and put a smile one everyone's face.

Today it was supposed to be advantage Braves as Tim Hudson took the mound against Kason Gabbard (?), but Hudson got roughed up for four runs in the 1st inning and the Sox never looked back, winning 6-3. The Braves threatened a few times, but only to shoot themselves in the foot repeatedly and end any hope of a come back every time.

Andruw Jones had a chance to tie it up in the ninth, but Jonathan Papelbon made him look absolutely pathetic, getting him to strike out for a 5th time in the GAME. That's not something I'd recommend doing in your contract year....

So, now the Mets come to town, in a series that becomes extra important if the Braves want to stay close to the division lead.

--Davey

Can someone please ask Curt Schilling to please shut up?

Apparently the Boston Red Sox are on two different wave links, just one day after David Ortiz defended Barry Bonds, his loud mouthed and opinionated teammate, Curt Schilling, let it be known, that he doesn't feel the same way.

“He admitted that he used steroids, there’s no gray area,” Schilling on WEEI-AM yesterday morning. “He admitted to cheating on his wife, he admitted to cheating on his taxes and he cheated on the game. I think the reaction around the league, around the game, seeing what it is, is an indication of what people think - Hank Aaron not being there, the commissioner trying to figure out where to be. It’s sad.”

Ok, I am in no way a Barry Bonds fan, but i'm not a Schilling fan either, I think they are both dicks and I have no idea why Schilling always feels it's his job to create unwanted and unnecessary friction by making stupid statements like this. First of all, he never admitted to cheating on his taxes, isn't that what he's currently fighting in court? It is a known fact that Bonds' did indeed have a mistress, but hasn't Schilling ever heard of the man law?(I kid, I kid) And although it's evident that Bonds' took steroids, as far as I know he's never came out and said he took steroids, or should I say he's never taken them knowingly. Look, I am all in favor for free speech, I have no problem with Schilling and anyone for that matter, speaking their opinions but if you're going to go on a radio show, and bash someone to that magnitude, you might want to get your facts right.

But he didn't stop there....

“I don’t care that he’s black or green or purple or yellow or whatever - it’s unfortunate,” the Sox right-hander said. “There are good people and bad people. It’s unfortunate it’s happening the way it happened.”

Schilling then laughed as he was asked if Bonds would get a pitch to hit were he at the plate at Fenway in June with a shot at tying or breaking the record.

“Not on purpose,” Schilling said. “Hell no. I don’t want to be Al Downing (the Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher who surrendered Aaron’s 715th home run on April 8, 1974).”

Like I said earlier, yesterday David "Big Papi" Ortiz defended Barry and then later said he may have also unknowingly taken steroids while in the Dominican. Ortiz said that he believes when Barry Bonds inevitably breaks the All-Time homerun record, which he is now just 10 away, he should be cheered, and cheered loudly.

“He deserves respect,” Ortiz said Sunday in Minneapolis. “People are not going to give it to him because of all the bad things running around, this and that, but people need to realize. I’ve heard a lot of different things about Barry Bonds, but people should just admit it - this guy’s a bad (expletive).”

Despite revelations in “Game of Shadows,” the book by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams that offers a damning chain of evidence linking BALCO and a number of baseball players, including Bonds, Ortiz said he is unaware of any evidence that Bonds used steroids.
“Have they proved he used steroids?” Ortiz asked. “But it was a cream or something he was using. He wasn’t injecting anything, right?”

Ortiz had much more to say during this interview, including saying that the Commissioner, Bud Selig is making things worse by making inconclusive remarks about whether or not he will be attending the game that Bonds breaks the record. Here's the link to the Boston Herald story.

By the way, here is Curt Schilling's official blog, 38 Pitches.

Did David Ortiz take steroids?

In an article in the Boston Herald, David "Big Papi" Ortiz said that he isn't "100 percent sure that he’s never used them". "Them" being steroids, he also said he he did take steroids, it was when he was much younger and still in the Dominican.

“I tell you, I don’t know too much about steroids, but I started listening about steroids when they started to bring that (expletive) up, and I started realizing and getting to know a little bit about it,” Ortiz said Sunday. “You’ve got to be careful. . . . I used to buy a protein shake in my country. I don’t do that any more because they don’t have the approval for that here, so I know that, so I’m off of buying things at the GNC back in the Dominican (Republic). But it can happen anytime, it can happen. I don’t know. I don’t know if I drank something in my youth, not knowing it.” Ortiz joked about going the steroids route. “I should use steroids just to see what’s going on,” Ortiz said with a laugh. “Nah. I have a good family. I want to see my kids learn and develop. I think I’m having an OK career. So, I take a lot of Advils, but I think I’m going to stop taking them. They say it (expletive) your liver.”

I am in no way accusing Ortiz of taking steroids, but he has very interesting career numbers. Before coming to Boston in 2003, he never once hit more than 20 homeruns and since he's played with the Sox, he's averaged 43 homeruns a season and that includes the last two year's MVP like seasons in which he had 47 and 54 respectively. Now, I personally like Ortiz, I think he's a great hitter and a very likable guy, all i'm trying to say is, I wouldn't be surprised. But then again, and this is very sad, every time someone has a breakout season in which their power numbers increase rapidly the first thing in most peoples minds are "he's gotta be juicing".

See Louis Gonzalez, another great person on and off the field, who had one "breakout season" in which he hit 57 homeruns and before and after that he'd never been able to hit more than 30.

EDIT: Louis Gonzalez hit 31 homers before he exploded with 57.