Pirate Castoff Schourek Re-Signs With Red Sox

Pete Schourek, who pitched for Pittsburgh last season after making a much-debated start for Boston in the 1998 playoffs, has re-signed with the Red Sox.

Schourek, 31 next month, was released by the Pirates last week, only one day after he apparently secured the fifth spot in their starting rotation.

The left-hander was 4-7 with a 5.34 earned-run average last year in the second season of a $4-million, two-year contract.

Boston’s deal with Schourek was reached last Friday and announced Sunday by General Manager Dan Duquette. The Red Sox open the season today in Seattle and Schourek is scheduled to pitch in Boston’s fourth game Friday at Anaheim.

Tim Wakefield, left off Boston’s roster for last year’s American League championship series with the New York Yankees, will move to the bullpen to make room for Schourek. He split his time last season between starting and relieving.

“I know he’s disappointed,” Boston Manager Jimy Williams said. “I don’t blame him. I feel it’s a good move, putting a veteran pitcher in that slot.”

Schourek was 1-3 with a 4.30 ERA in eight starts for Boston late in the 1998 season. Then he started and pitched 5 1/3 scoreless innings in the fourth and deciding game of the AL division series against Cleveland.

But Williams’ choice of Schourek over Pedro Martinez, who started the first game and would have been pitching on short rest, was widely questioned. The Indians won the game, eliminating the Red Sox.

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While the Detroit Tigers were opening the season on the West Coast, workers were rushing to make sure Comerica Park will be ready to open April 11.

Some bustled about the 40,000-seat ballpark in Detroit on powered carts, through an April chill and the thick fumes of fresh paint. Outside, heavy machinery cleared mounds of dirt and concrete chunks from a parking lot.

“Everything will be done,” aside from a couple of fast-food restaurants and a sports tavern, Tiger president John McHale Jr. said on a day to give reporters a limited look at what generally only laborers, executives and pigeons had seen.

The club hopes demand to see games at Comerica is strong enough to help break the franchise’s 1987 season attendance record of 2.7 million. So far, nearly 1.7 million tickets already have been sold, and attendance for the year would hit 3.2 million if the Tigers sold out every seat during the season.

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Tampa Bay left fielder Greg Vaughn says he’s tired of all the talk about the Devil Rays’ powerful lineup that includes Jose Canseco, Fred McGriff, Vinny Castilla (15-day disabled list) and himself. “We’re all separate pieces of the puzzle,” Vaughn said. “People talk about us like we’re separate from the team. Sure, we can erase a deficit a little easier. But we’ve still got to throw strikes, make plays, move the runner over. Or all this power won’t matter.” . . . Baltimore’s B.J. Surhoff owns the longest active consecutive games streak in the majors, now at 325 after playing Monday.