Curt Schilling

Curt Schilling
Curtis Montague Schillingis an American former Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher, former video game developer, and former baseball color analyst. He helped lead the Philadelphia Phillies to the World Series in 1993, and won championships in 2001 with the Arizona Diamondbacks and in 2004 and 2007 with the Boston Red Sox. Schilling retired with a career postseason record of 11–2, and his .846 postseason winning percentage is a major-league record among pitchers with at least ten decisions. He is a...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBaseball Player
Date of Birth14 November 1966
CountryUnited States of America
We won a lot more games than we lost when I was down there, and that was the goal, ... I went down there to try and help seal a leak and patch a hole. I'd like to think I did that for the most part. I mean, I certainly didn't pitch as well as I would have liked, but we played well and won games while I was down there.
I used all my pitches like I did as a starter and we located well. I had good command and I pitched.
Every mistake that I make, we're paying for, ... It's a corner you try not to back yourself into, because you tend to pitch tentative, and I can't do that. I left two balls up in the zone, splits. One was the double off the wall. Another was up.
Warming up for the second inning, I threw my split-finger and everything clicked. The first two starts, I haven't felt like I've been consistently bearing the pitch well and I didn't feel like I've been throwing it at a good angle. And I threw it and it was exactly what I wanted it to be from a feel standpoint. And mentally, I was like, 'There it is.' From that point on, when I needed a strikeout, I felt very comfortable about command, fastball-wise, and about the fact I could bury my split in the ground.
I wasn't sure what I was going to be this year. I feel I'm pitching better than I ever have.
I wasn't trying to hit him in the head. I don't play the game that way. I've got to pitch in. This is the only place I'll get comfortable doing it, making it part of my game plan and taking it into the season. I promise you there are very few people in this world who have stepped in the box in the last seven or eight years against Pedro Martinez that haven't thought about the fastball in. I'm definitely not one of those guys from a pitching standpoint because I've had so much success away.
I think he gets how big this thing is for me. And how important this thing is for me. Every inning. Every out. Every pitch. How that affects him, I don't know. But he's very intelligent, and things don't get lost on him. If you're talking pitching and he thinks it will help, he'll use it.
He's a classy guy. I'm guessing (he retired) because from a pitcher standpoint, the backup catcher has got to catch Timmy and that represents a whole new set of challenges.
I don't have an explanation for it. I just know the first three innings, I was pitching. We had a game plan and I was moving the ball, making my pitches. Then all of a sudden, I could feel it. When I threw a couple pitches in the fourth inning, I knew I had something extra on them.
I did some things better, ... The first pitch of the game I left the ball out over the middle of the plate, and Manny made a huge play.
It takes two. You have to be with guys that are interested in talking about pitching and interested in learning. There's a chance for me to learn as well. There's a lot of different ways to skin a cat. But those are a good group of guys.
I tried to sequence some pitches and approaches as if I was facing big league hitters. But I pitched, and I haven't done that in a long, long time, since early 2004, without other questions going on.
You could ask any position player and they'll tell you: pitchers aren't athletes.
The bottom line is that the ball should not have hit him. You've got to be able to get out of the way of that pitch. I threw a ball in and jammed him the pitch before. I threw in a couple of times during his first at-bat. That's just the way it goes. I'm not trying to hit anybody in the head. Everybody I have been on the field with knows I play the game the way it's supposed to be played.