April 17, 2004: New acquisition Curt Schilling beats Yankees for first time in season

Right-hander Curt Schilling was a second-round draft pick of the Boston Red Sox in January 1986. Seeking a veteran starter as they surged to the American League East title in July 1988, the Red Sox traded Schilling and Brady Anderson to the Baltimore Orioles for right-hander Mike Boddicker. Schilling spent the next few seasons with the Orioles and Houston Astros, and his career blossomed when he became a starter after an April 1992 trade to the Philadelphia Phillies.

He won 101 games in nine seasons in Philadelphia and another 58 games for the Arizona Diamondbacks from 2000 to 2003, highlighted by a major-league-leading 22 wins in 2001.1 With the Phillies and Diamondbacks, Schilling was 5-1 in postseason play and beat the New York Yankees in Game One of the 2001 World Series, 9-1, also starting Game Four and Game Seven with a composite ERA of 1.69 over the three starts.

After the 2003 season, Schilling’s career came full cycle with a trade to the Red Sox, with whom he signed a new contract after being courted over Thanksgiving by GM Theo Epstein. Joining a staff with Pedro Martínez, Derek Lowe, and Tim Wakefield, wrote William C. Rhoden in the New York Times, gave Boston “on paper, the best rotation in baseball.”2

Schilling’s first start for Boston was a six-inning, one-run outing in Baltimore on April 6, the Red Sox’ first win of 2004. On April 11 he struck out 10 Toronto Blue Jays in eight innings but received a no-decision in Boston’s 12-inning walk-off win.

His third start, a Saturday afternoon home game against the New York Yankees on April 17, followed a 6-2 win on Friday night that brought the Red Sox record to 5-4. Because Schilling had primarily been a reliever with the Orioles and the rest of his career was in the National League, this was only his fifth regular-season start against the Yankees.3

Schilling struck out the first batter he faced, shortstop Derek Jeter. He struck out the second batter he faced, center fielder Bernie Williams. Third up was third baseman Álex Rodríguez, whom the Red Sox had also actively pursued in the 2003-04 offseason before the Yankees acquired him from the Texas Rangers on February 16. A-Rod swung at the first pitch and flied out to Johnny Damon in deep center field.

Veteran right-hander Mike Mussina was the starter for Joe Torre and the Yankees. Mussina had accumulated a 147-81 record in 10 seasons with Baltimore and had added another 52 wins in three seasons with the Yankees through 2003. He won Game Three of the 2003 World Series against the Florida Marlins after losing two ALCS games against the Red Sox.

The only Red Sox baserunner in the bottom of the first was the DH, David Ortiz, who singled up the middle into center field.

The first two Yankees were retired in the second, but left fielder Hideki Matsui drew a walk and catcher Jorge Posadafollowed with a ground-rule double. Schilling then struck out first baseman Tony Clark to extinguish the threat.

Mussina struggled with control in the bottom of the inning, and the Red Sox capitalized to take the lead. After one out, he walked catcher Jason Varitek (on four pitches) and second baseman Mark Bellhorn (on five). Right fielder Gabe Kaplersingled to right, loading the bases.

Shortstop Pokey Reese struck out for the second out, but Damon showed good plate discipline, earning a run-scoring base on balls on 10 pitches. Next up was third baseman Bill Mueller. Mussina’s first pitch hit Mueller on the right elbow, and the Red Sox had another run. Ortiz grounded into a force to end the inning, but Boston had a 2-0 lead.

The Yankees got another ground-rule double in the top of the third, hit by Williams, but it was sandwiched between two groundouts and a strikeout of Rodríguez.

In the bottom of the third, first baseman Kevin Millar reached on a one-out fielding error by Jeter, his second error in as many games. Varitek was safe at first on a bunt single fielded by Mussina. Bellhorn lined a single to right field, loading the bases. Kapler grounded out to third base, unassisted; Kapler slid into first base to beat A-Rod’s throw for a possible double play, and Millar scored, Reese then grounded out to third base, also unassisted. The score was 3-0, Boston.

A walk and a single gave the Yankees two baserunners in the fourth, but Posada hit into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play. Damon singled in the bottom of the inning, but Mueller popped out foul to third and Ortiz hit into a double play.4Schilling had blanked the Yankees on three hits through four innings. On his second pitch of the fifth, however, Clark hit a leadoff home run into the triangle in the straightaway center-field bleachers.5 The Yankees had their first run. Boston 3, New York 1.

Boston struck back in the bottom of the fifth. On the second pitch Manny Ramírez saw, he hit a leadoff homer over the Wall in left-center. It was career home run number 350 for the 12-year veteran. The Red Sox had reestablished a three-run lead.

After Schilling struck out A-Rod to open the sixth, a hit and two walks loaded the bases with two outs, but Clark grounded out to Millar, Schilling covering the bag at first.

Donovan Osborne took over pitching duties from Mussina and pitched a scoreless sixth, and Yankees second baseman Enrique Wilson singled to start the seventh. Schilling struck out Jeter on nine pitches, pushing his pitch count to 121.

Red Sox manager Terry Francona, who had managed Schilling from 1997 to 2000 with the Phillies, called on reliever Mike Timlin. Williams walked, but Rodríguez hit into a double play, leaving him 0-for-8 in the first two games of the season against Boston and preserving the 4-1 lead.

Ramírez led off the bottom of the seventh with a single. One out later, he stole second base – one of only two steals for Ramírez in 2004. But Varitek lined out to pitcher Osborne, who threw to second and doubled off Ramírez.

After Timlin set down the Yankees in order in the top of the eighth, Boston added its fifth run. Bellhorn reached on a hit-by-pitch, stole second, and continued to third on catcher Posada’s errant throw. Kapler struck out. Reese hit the ball back to Osborne, who threw home for the tag on Bellhorn. Reese took second on the play. Damon doubled to left field, scoring Reese.

The Yankees came to bat in the ninth facing closer Keith Foulke, yet another offseason acquisition by the Red Sox. Posada hit the ball hard, but it went for a long out to right-center. Foulke struck out Clark. Ruben Sierra pinch-hit for Wilson and singled to center field. With Jeter at the plate, Sierra took second base on defensive indifference. Jeter then singled him in, with a drive to left. It was 5-2, with the Red Sox still on top. After six scoreless appearances, it was the first run Foulke had given up in 2004. The Red Sox remained indifferent against the steal and Jeter took second base. Williams grounded out to Millar at first base, unassisted, ending the game – a win for the team and for Curt Schilling.

Mussina said after the game, “We just didn’t show enough life to really even put ourselves in it. … We just haven’t played our best baseball. We need to do it when we come to Boston and we haven’t done it.”6 Schilling had struck out Jeter three times and A-Rod twice. “We haven’t hit,” Jeter said. “There’s no way to sugarcoat it.”7The Red Sox had been playing without regular right fielder Trot Nixon or shortstop Nomar Garciaparra. “I’ve never seen a lineup like this,” Schilling said after the game, “As deep as this one. They’re going to make you work. … All things aside, we won. We’ve taken the first two games of the series against a good team. And that’s a good thing.”8

Schilling won another 19 games for the Red Sox during the 2004 regular season, finishing with a record of 21-6 to lead the major leagues in wins. He won Game One of the AL Division Series against the Anaheim Angels, rebounded from a three-inning outing in Game One of the ALCS to beat the Yankees in the famed “Bloody Sock” Game Six, and won Game Two of the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. Three years later, in what turned out to be the final appearances of his 20-season career, Schilling won one game in each of the three postseason series as the Red Sox repeated as World Series champions.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Carl Riechers and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. Brief highlights are available on YouTube.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS200404170.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2004/B04170BOS2004.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiZOcjY5_f8

Notes

1 The 22 wins tied him with Matt Morris of the Cardinals.

2 William C. Rhoden, “New Arm Gives Red Sox Some Spine,” New York Times, April 18, 2004: SP1.

3 Schilling’s first start against the Yankees, as a member of the Orioles on September 27, 1988, resulted in a 5-1 loss. With Philadelphia, he had started interleague games against the Yankees during the 1997, 1999, and 2000 seasons.

4 Damon was easily doubled off base on Ortiz’s foul popup to third. He had kept running on the popup, having apparently thought there were already two outs. Bob Hohler, “He Takes Homers in Stride,” Boston Globe, April 18, 2004: D12.

5 The area had been known as “Conig’s Corner,” acknowledging it as a spot where Tony Conigliaro had liked to hit home runs. Gordon Edes used the phrase in his Globe column. Gordon Edes, “He’s Playing Downplaying,” Boston Globe, April 18, 2004: D11.

6 Tyler Kepner, “The Yankees Look Listless in a Clinic by Schilling,” New York Times, April 18, 2004: SP1.

7 Jon Paul Morosi, “Boston’s Schilling Outpitches Mussina,” Washington Post, April 18, 2004: E1.

8 Edes. The Red Sox dropped Sunday’s game, losing 7-3, but won the Monday Patriots Day game, 5-4, thus taking three of four from the visiting Yankees.