Sports Redux: The Beckett Shift

We'll get into the Red Sox victory over Atlanta in just a moment, but Curt Schilling just wrapped up his weekly phone call with WEEI, and Bostonist was struck by the decidedly different tone of voice we heard over the airwaves. Schilling's not sure about what's going on with his arm, and we're not sure about what's going on with our No. 1 starter - which means we're in the midst of an odd Wednesday morning.

For those who wondered about whether Schilling would or has censored himself on 38Pitches, there's an answer: yes. Schilling told WEEI this morning that he hasn't felt like himself since at least late in spring training, that from "a feel standpoint, I have not felt right and it’s had an immense amount of effect on the inconsistency I’ve been going through.”

During a conversation filled with "I don't know"s and "yeah, sure"s - atypical of the characteristically confident man - Schilling said he has not been "discomfort-free" and received a shot of cortisone yesterday (the same day a MRI taken here in Boston came back normal). At this point, it's a waiting game until at least Friday, he said, and it looks like a long shot at best that Schill will take the mound on Sunday for his scheduled start.

Yikes. For perhaps the first time this season, Curt Schilling is speaking like a 40-year-old major league arm. We'll all wait to see what happens.

But there's good news! The Sox rocked Atlanta 4-0 last night and propelled Josh Beckett to his tenth win of the season. The pitcher, who went six innings with four hits, two walks and three strikeouts, became the second AL 10-game winner this season.

We're wondering, though, if we should we say that Beckett propelled the Sox to the win. Thanks to interleague play, Sox fans got a chance to see the former NL pitcher take to the plate and debunk the myth that pitchers can't hit. In the fifth inning, with the Sox hanging onto a 1-0 lead, Beckett helped his own cause by crushing a double to left-center, scoring Alex Cora. Beckett then crossed home plate to further cushion the lead with a Dustin Pedroia RBI single to amke it 3-0. The Sox would score once more in the sixth to close out the offense and secure the victory.

Beckett's highlight-worthy hit, however, was shown up just moments later, when Coco Crisp made another of his brilliant catches in center field to rob Tim Hudson of what should have been at least a double. Positioned in right-center, Crisp sprinted before flying through the air to make a left-center grab. Beckett later described the play as "the greatest catch I've ever had behind me" and Red Sox fans everywhere notched the move up to "another one of those Coco grabs."

The Sox will finish out this Atlanta series tonight when 4-4 Julian Tavarez faces off against the 1-1 Buddy Carlyle tonight - they then take a day off as they travel to San Diego. Stay classy, Sox fans.

-- Rumors are flying everywhere about who will be hired to lead the Bruins to another season of God knows what thrilling hockey action. The loudest voices are saying that the team has already hired Claude Julien to replace Dave Lewis. Julien, of course, led New Jersey to a 47-24-8 record before he was fired by the Devils (a move that still doesn't make sense to us, but hey) and formerly coached the Montreal Canadiens (if he does come on board, we won't hold that against him). The Bruins are keepimg mum at the moment about who the new skipper will be.

-- Finally, on the NFL front, commissioner Roger Goodell said yesterday in Chicago that the league will put into place a system designed to protect players and league whistle-blowers. That is, folks affiliated with the NFL will be able to report anonymously whenever they feel a medical team is being forced to overlook concussions and put the players back onto the field.

With the number of gold star players last night, we decided to give a photo nod to the entire team effort. Flickr user uzi978 hooked us up with the image.