Schilling, Wakefield pleased by outings

03/15/2006
FORT MYERS, Fla. -- In a Spring Training-only special, pitchers Curt Schilling and Tim Wakefield faced each other in a Minor League intrasquad game on Wednesday.
Schilling, who faced 24 batters in six innings, said he was very encouraged by his outing.
"I don't know if it was any one thing," said Schilling, who allowed four hits and a walk while striking out six in his six shutout innings. "I felt very good about how I felt at the end. I was very strong. I could have gone a lot longer. I worked on a lot of things."
Two things Schilling has been working on specifically this spring are his changeup and pitching inside, neither of which he used much in the past.
"I worked on my curveball today," he said. "I felt I threw a lot of good curveballs. I'm throwing my changeup. It's to the point now where it's going to be a pitch I'm going to use in a game to get people out with. I pitched [inside] well again today."
In each of his last two outings, Schilling hit a batter in the helmet. He created a controversy with his comments after his last outing against the Pirates, when he hit outfielder Chris Duffy. Although Schilling did not hit any batters Wednesday, it appeared a pitch grazed the shoulder of right-handed hitter Javier Cardona, who led off the third inning.
"No, it didn't hit him," said catcher Josh Bard, who caught both Schilling and Wakefield -- a combined 11 innings and 147 pitches in 85-degree heat. "[But] that pitch was more in and less up than the pitch to Duffy."
Schilling said he was pleased with his velocity, which according to one radar gun was in the range of 91-92 mph.
"I thought I threw some balls good," he said. "That's probably my No. 1 question all spring going into the season. In the past, it's always been whatever you have in March, you add 3-4 mph in April. ... I'm comfortable where I'm at."
Wakefield, who faced 19 batters over five innings, gave up one run on two hits, with a walk and a hit batter. Wakefield, who struck out two, also said he was pleased with his outing.
"I feel good," said Wakefield, who likely will be slotted in the rotation between Schilling and Josh Beckett. "I felt strong today. I felt like I could have gone longer. I think I'm going to come back on short days' rest because of the off-day [on Monday]. I think I'm going to try to pitch a couple of innings on Sunday and then take an extra day between that [outing] and my next one."
Wakefield is happy with the way his rapport with Bard -- the likely candidate for the backup catcher spot and, therefore, Wakefield's designated catcher -- is progressing.
"He's done a good job," Wakefield said. "We're all professionals here, and he's been great since he's been here. He's a great receiver anyway, regardless of whether he's going to catch me or not. So it's just a matter of repetition, him catching me and getting used to different things, and looking for arm angles and different things that we need to talk about before the season starts.
"The more times he catches me, the more comfortable he gets. I think he did a great job [on Wednesday]."
Bard, who in one game Wednesday caught 5 percent of his 2005 season total of 219 2/3 innings, said the outing was not as difficult as he had anticipated.
"[I feel] pretty good," he said. "I was telling the guys, the idea of catching basically 10 innings without stopping, you go, 'Wow.' But it wasn't as bad as I thought. And that's a credit to [Schilling and Wakefield]. They threw strikes [and] they got ground balls.
"There wasn't really any innings where they were really laboring. And that's a credit to the Minor League guys. They swung the bat; they knew that [Schilling and Wakefield] were out there to get their work in.
"It's nice to see ... [Schilling] getting his pitch count up there. And in the last inning, I think he was as strong, if not stronger [than at the beginning]. He started to let the ball go towards the end. I think it takes a little time to really feel like, 'Hey, I can let it go and let it loose.' And I think he's starting to feel that, and I think today was good for him."
General manager Theo Epstein, who watched from behind the backstop, gave the outings of the two starters a favorable report.
"All right, OK," Epstein said.

Source: http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/