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Thursday, April 4, 2002
D-Backs' shutout start not necessarily good
1919 Boston Red Sox were last defending champion to open season with two shutouts
By Bob Baum
Associated Press
PHOENIX - Before Arizona fans get too caught up in the euphoria of shutout victories in the Diamondbacks' first two games, they should consider this:
   The last defending champions to do it were the 1919 Boston Red Sox.
   Carl Mays and Sad Sam Jones twirled 18 innings of goose eggs; then Babe Ruth was traded to the Yankees, and the Curse of the Bambino took over. The Sox, as any baseball fan knows, haven't won a title since.
   To make matters worse for Arizona, Ruth's daughter lives in the Phoenix area and is a Diamondbacks fan. Ouch! Maybe the gods of baseball would have been appeased if closer Byung-Hyun Kim would have given up a homer or two in the ninth inning Tuesday night.
   Instead, Kim allowed a paltry pair of singles and the Diamondbacks completed a 9-0 rout of San Diego.
   Randy Johnson threw a six hitter in a 2-0 opening-day victory, and Curt Schilling blanked the Padres on six hits through seven innings Tuesday night. Lefty Mike Myers tossed a scoreless eighth, then Kim survived the ninth in his first appearance since his allowing consecutive game-tying homers with two outs in the ninth in Games 4 and 5 of the World Series.
   Arizona became the first team to open the season with consecutive shutouts since the 1994 San Francisco Giants. Chances are, the Diamondbacks figure Johnson and Schilling are enough to offset any curse that the Red Sox may have shipped to the Southwest.
   "We knew we had our work cut out with those two," San Diego manager Bruce Bochy said. "We knew we had to play our best ball to beat one of those guys."
   Johnson threw 127 pitches. Schilling was lifted after 80, 60 of them strikes. Johnson fanned eight, Schilling nine. Johnson walked one, Schilling none. And remember, both of these guys are fastball pitchers.
   "Schil could have very easily finished that game, no question about it," Arizona manager Bob Brenly said. "But with the big lead, we wanted to get some guys out there and get them a little bit of work, get them involved, and this was a great opportunity to do it."
   The statistics for Johnson and Schilling are bordering on the ridiculous. Counting last regular season and the postseason, then these two victories, they are a combined 54-13. Since the last regular season ended, they are 11-1.
   It was the first time the Diamondbacks have had consecutive shutouts since Sept. 11-12, 1999.

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