Dragnet Fens: A’s at Sox

Home sweet home. We hope.

Things went swimmingly the last time Schill faced the A’s. The first time in the Fens? Not so much. Here’s hoping he goes 2 for 3 with O-town this year.

Let’s face it, there’s no place the Sox would rather be right now than at Fenway Park. Even Tampa Bay, where they took 2 of 3 again to stop the bleeding and regain at least a modicum of positive trajectory. Tonight, Curt Schilling steps back to the mound to face the team he nearly one-hit in one of the most masterful games of controlled execution in recent memory.

Of course, tonight could be a different story. Or maybe not. Like the last time Schilling faced Oakland, the Sox have been reeling, struggling to find any offense, often letting down decent pitching efforts in the process. Lately, the lineup has looked like a pair of reliable on-base guys at the top - rookies Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia - Big Papi, who is starting to round back into form at just the right time, Mike Lowell, who continues to out-produce his career statistics, and then a whole bunch of crap. Coco Crisp hasn’t done anything particularly notable since returning from back spasms. Julio Lugo continues to provide intermittent sparks, but little else. In fact, only captain Jason Varitek and - get ready to be shocked - J.D. Drew have provided any substantive offense in the second half of the lineup during Boston’s struggles.

That makes for an interesting comparison with Oakland’s stretch lineup, a group that includes Sox-killer Eric Chavez, the surprising and surging Jack Cust and, well, a whole lot of crap. They don’t even have the unreliably potent bat and temper of Milton Bradley. For proof of the potent temper, check this.

So, will Schilling return off extra rest tonight and put up the kind of triumphant performance he mustered out at “Enter Bland Corporate Sponsor Here” Park in Oakland early this spring? Or will he put up the kind of solid starts he’s had the last three times out, when he’s thrown five-plus solid innings, slipped a bit in the sixth and then been rocked in the seventh?

Good questions all, and only one man - if that - knows. Here’s hoping Schilling lets us in on a good secret rather than a bad one. If he does, the entire point of winning these games at home down the stretch will be a sort of place-holding mental masturbation anyway.

After all, if Boston can’t beat the A’s at home, far removed from the playoffs as they are, then how are the Red Sox supposed to beat the Angels or Indians?

– Cameron Smith