Did Tito Catch Bruschi's Stroke?

Is it possible that two Boston sports figures suffered mild strokes in the past few months. I am well aware that Teddy Bruschi had some sort of aneurysm, but did Terry Francona suffer one as well? It sure seemed like it last night when Francona did everything in his power to convince me that his recent viral infection caused some sort of ancillary brain damage. What else could explain Tito’s decision to leave Curt Schiiling in a 2-2 game after he had thrown ninety plus pitches in his first game of the year. What was so important about last night’s game that Francona felt a need to press his ace to his limit? It made no sense whatsoever. Francona played last night’s game like it was game 2 of the ALCS when if fact was just the eighth game of the year. He got five innings and 90 pitches out of Schilling and that is about all he could have expected. So why did he trot him out in the Sixth and once he gave up a hit, why was Curt not lifted? I cannot answer that question.

As for Schilling, I thought he threw a fine game through five, albeit one that was not exactly pitch efficient. He seemed aggressive by coming out and throwing strikes from the get go, constantly getting ahead of Yankee hitters. The only problem I saw was Yankee hitters were fouling off pitches all night, thus driving up the pitch count. Schilling was around the plate early and often, but he lacked an out pitch and that probably ended up costing him twenty additional pitches. I am confident that splitter will come so I am not exactly ready to press the panic button yet.

As for the rest of the game, I thought it was basically lost in the bottom of the third when Jaret Wright couldn’t find the dish with a map of Fenway yet the Sox were only able to plate a single run. When David Ortiz is up there and its bases loaded with one out, you gotta think you are going to get more then a single run. But Ortiz was only able to lob a soft fly to Matsui and Renteria was unable to come up with the big two out hit. Had the Sox come up with another hit in that frame, the game would have been played on different terms.