A tale of two hurlers.

The Sox have just won their second game of the season (having lost the first on Sunday night), 4-1, thanks to the efforts of our new ace Curt Schilling, who made his debut as Numero Dos in the much-ballyhooed Martinez/Schilling/Lowe/Wakefield rotation by pitching six solid innings this evening, giving up only one run and striking out seven. This has doubtless calmed more than a few nerves here in Red Sox Nation, which has had a whole day and a half to agonize over the team's season opener loss against the Baltimore Orioles down at Camden Yards - with Pedro on the mound, no less. Love him or hate him, you couldn't help but feel sorry for Martinez, who pitched a very uneven game and could barely get his fastball up above ninety miles per hour, something that fans, sports pundits, and scouts couldn't help but notice and worry about during Spring Training.

Now the regular season is here and Pedro is still not quite Pedro; and to make matters worse, he's already starting with his trademark shenanigans, avoiding the press and even going home early after being taken off the mound after six innings of his own. The local talking heads have made enough hay out of this incident, and to be perfectly honest I think it was just a matter of Martinez being understandably down on himself for having a less-than-stellar outing, though I do believe that he should have been disciplined for leaving the park before the game ended. Brand new manager Terry Francona failed his first big test in that regard when yesterday he equivocated on the matter of his pitcher's obvious infraction of a rule that should just be observed as a given - unless you're being carried out of the ballpark, you don't leave before the rest of your team does. By all means go to the showers if you can't bear to stay in the dugout, but don't just out and out leave. That Francona hesitated to discipline his temperamental ace so early in the season is troubling to say the least. What happens when it's Game Seven of the ALCS and Pedro wants to stay on the mound (again)?

But let's not indulge in too much hand-wringing. We're 1 and 1 so far this season, a perfectly liminal .500 record. Where the season goes from here is still up in the air, despite the proclamations of gloom and doom from the radio talk show hosts and the despairing cell phone callers. So let's sit back and enjoy the show.