ALCS Game 2 Preview: Schill on the hill should mean 2 in the hand

Fausto Carmona (19-8, 3.06; 0-0, 1.00) vs. Curt Schilling (9-8, 3.87; 1-0, 0.00)
Fenway Park 8EST FOX

One night after the Sox newest postseason ace gave Boston an 1-0 advantage in this American League Championship series, the Sox last great postseason ace will take the mound to try to lead his club to a 2-0 lead before the series swings to C-Town on Monday.

As we all know, Curt Schilling was the star of Boston's 2004 Series-winning staff, pitching his way through excruciating pain and into the annals of baseball lore when his bloody sock became the inspiration for heroic deeds and blog titles worldwide.

This year, after a season filled with excellence (near no-no) and exasperation (the loss of his fastball, the shoulder pain that forced him to miss a month), that postseason magic returned when he twirled a terrific game in the ALDS clincher, when he allowed no runs on six hits in seven innings in a 9-1 win over the Angels.

Tonight will be Schill's biggest start in a Boston uniform since he won Game 2 of that World Series, and with a 9-2 record and sick 1.93 ERA in his playoff career, you have to think he's gonna get the job done, even though he'll be going up against Cleveland's young phenom and former closing failure, Fausto Carmona.

After Boston ended Carmona's brief attempt at becoming a closer with consecutive walk-off wins last September, the big, quiet righty rebounded to post a terrific 2007 campaign as a a starter, placing second in the AL in both wins and ERA while tossing 215 innings, good for 10th in the league.

Carmona carried that regular season success into his forst postseason start last Friday when he threw nine innings of 3-hit, 1-run ball against the Stanks in Cleveland's 2-1 victory in Game of 2 the ALDS.

So it will be the old stud vs the young buck in a battle for playoff supremacy, and I don't know about you but I'll take my chances with the wily old coyote over the wide-eyed whippersnapper any day of the week.

Even without a bloody sock.

Go Sox!