World Series GM 2 Recap: Schill on the hill worth 2 games in hand

Sox 2, Colorado 1
Boston leads series, 2-0
WP: Schilling (3-0)
LP: Jimenez (0-1)
SV: Papelbon (2)
HRs: None

SUMMARY
One night after clubbing 17 hits and scoring 13 runs the Sox offense was stymied by hard-throwing young Colorado righthander Ubaldo Jimenez. Boston notched just six hits and a pair of runs, but the way Curt Schilling and the bullpen pitched tonight, it was good enough to defeat the frigid Rocks.

Schilling was Maddox-esque in tossing 5 1/3 innings of 4-hit, 1-run ball. The effort not only earned him his 11th career postseason win, but completed an eerie parallel to the 2004 Series, when Schilling pitched his team to victory in Game 2 against St. Louis en route to Boston's sweep of the Cardinals.

Deja vu all over again anyone?

Let's hope so.

#1 STUNNER Boston pitchers 9IP, 5H, 1ER, 2BB, 10K
When Schill got into a spot of trouble (2 on, one out) in the 5th, Hideki Okajima came in and retired the next two batters to escape the jam, and he went on to hurl 2 1/3 innings of no hit ball, striking out four Rockies.

After fanning the first two batters in the 8th, Papelbon relieved Oki and allowed an infield single to Matt Holliday before picking him off first, then he tossed a 1-2-3 ninth to nail down his first ever World Series save.

No word on whether he did another Riverdance in celebration.

GAGME Colorado offense 5H, 1R, 2BB, 10K
You know your team is in a heap of offensive trouble when it has only managed 11 hits and two runs in two games, and 8 of those hits have come from three players.

Tonight all of the "damage" was done by 3B Garrett Atkins, who had four of the Rockies five base knocks, while the rest of the team was a horrid 1-25 on the night.

Are we sure this is the team that won 21 of 22 games coming in to this series? Oh yeah, that streak happened against National League competition.

RECAP
He came.

He pitched.

He won.

Again.

Curt Schilling, the Nation's favorite blogging postseason hero, added another clutch win to his already impressive playoff resume in what may have been his final performance in a Boston uniform. The veteran righty, who has had to rely on guile, guts and location at this stage of his career rather than adrenaline and high octane, deftly maneuvered through the Rockies lineup like a surgeon navigating a patient's interior, escaping a few mini-jams while holding the Rockies to a measly four singles.

Following another stirring rendition of the National Anthem, this time by Boston's beloved velvet-voiced balladeer James Taylor, things didn't start off too well for Schill when he hit the first batter of the game, Willy Taveras, with a pitch that barely grazed the speedy centerfielder's batting glove.

After getting Kaz Matsui to fly out to center, Schill fell asleep on a ground ball by Matt Holliday (4-4) that went off Mike Lowell's glove and careened into short left field. As Lowell fired the ball back to third to try and get the streaking Taveras, Schill got a late start to the bag, and not only was Taveras safe at third, but Holliday made it all the way to second on a sloppy play that did not epitomize the Sox effort so far in this series.

Todd Helton brought the run home with an RBI grounder to Youk that gave Colorado its first lead of the series, but that just like the previous game, that single run would be the only one to cross the plate for the Rockies all night.

Unlike last night it would be a while before Boston's batters could catch up as the fireballing Jimenez (4.2IP, 3H, 2ER, 5BB, 2K), a wafer-thin 23-year-old who has appeared in just 17 games in his career, baffled the Sox over the first three innings, allowing only three baserunners on a hit-by-pitch and a pair of walks.

But Boston would get on the board in the fourth, and it was thanks to some heads-up baserunning by the Sox that allowed them to tie it up.

Manny popped out to lead off the frame, then Mike Lowell drew a walk from the often erratic Jimenez, who throws 100 mph heat but sometimes can't control where that missile is going. The smoking hot J.D. Drew followed with a single to right field, and the heady Lowell, who saw that Brad Hawpe was kind of nonchalantly playing the ball, broke for third and beat the throw to the bag by a nose.

One pitch later Cap'n Tek blasted a fly ball to deep center to score Lowell easily, and although the game was only tied at one, for some reason it felt like the Sox had already won it.

How's your own medicine taste, suckers?!