Study hall

By Eric Wilbur

October 7, 2005

1 minute to read

With almost a week under his belt to prepare for the offense the Chicago White Sox might trot out against him tomorrow, potential Boston Game 4 starter Curt Schilling said today that if the Red Sox can win this afternoon’s Game 3, they stand a good chance of forcing a deciding Game 5 in Chicago.

“I don’t feel like I can be beat when I put that much time and effort into something,” Schilling said.

Schilling threw in the bullpen Wednesday in Chicago, and said he felt fine afterward. He faced the White Sox in these teams’ Sept. 5 makeup game at Fenway, and was hit for nine hits and four earned runs in the Red Sox’ 5-3 loss.

“I learned a lot of things I didn’t want to do,” Schilling said about the loss. “I feel like I’m better than I was then. But being better isn’t going to help us win tomorrow.”

Schilling, wearing a red T-shirt proclaiming, “God is our refuge and strength,” said the attitude on the team, down 0-2 to the White Sox, is the same it was when Boston was down 0-3 to the Yankees in last year’s ALCS.

“The last 18 (innings) have nothing to do with what we need to do tonight,” he said.

“In my mind, we’re playing again.”

— About an hour before game time, the deluge of rain predicted for this evening, and much of the weekend, appears to be holding off. There is a fair amount of cloud cover over Fenway Park, but patches of blue are visible. For the time being, the skies do not look threatening. Looks like they should have no trouble getting this one in.

— The controversial AL East standings board in left field, which still displayed the final 2005 results in the AL East yesterday afternoon — with Boston placed on top of New York despite the same record and the Red Sox declared wild card winners — has been disassembled, with the team names and win-loss records removed.