Schilling Is Sharp as Red Sox Roll

Pitching in the World Series and dozens of other important games couldn’t prevent Curt Schilling from feeling jittery as he prepared for his first start with Boston.

“I was nervous all day. That’s just the way I am,” he said. “More so today than normal, but I expected that.”

Assigned the task of preventing Boston from falling to 0-2 for the first time since 1996, Schilling gave up one run in six innings to lead the Red Sox past the Orioles, 4-1, Tuesday at Baltimore.

Boston’s decision to pick Schilling in the 1986 amateur draft finally paid off -- 18 years later. Obtained in a trade with Arizona in November, the right-hander got the Red Sox rolling after Sunday’s opening-night loss to Baltimore.

“This was different today in a lot of ways,” said Schilling, in his 14th major league season. “It’s a different environment, there are a lot of expectations, and you want to live up to them the best you can.”

Schilling (1-0) gave up six hits, struck out seven and walked one in earning his second career victory in the American League -- the first since 1990, when he was with the Orioles. He spent parts of three seasons in Baltimore after being traded from Boston with Brady Anderson in July 1988 for Mike Boddicker.

Baltimore starter Eric DuBose (0-1) gave up three runs, four hits and a career-high six walks in 5 1/3 innings.

Tampa Bay 9, New York 4 -- Alex Rodriguez hit his first home run for the Yankees, but Mike Mussina couldn’t hold a four-run lead and the Devil Rays rallied to win at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Mussina (0-2) lost last week’s opener to Zambrano (2-0) in Japan, where the Devil Rays and Yankees split two games before returning to Florida to resume their spring training schedule.

Detroit 7, Toronto 3 -- Carlos Guillen homered and drove in two runs at Toronto as the Tigers start the season 2-0 for the first time since 1986.

Detroit began 0-9 last year and set an American League record with 119 losses. The Tigers did not win consecutive games until a four-game winning streak from May 4-7.

Oakland 3, Texas 1 -- Jermaine Dye hit a two-run homer and left-hander Mark Mulder looked like his old self in the Athletics’ victory at Oakland in a game that took 2 hours, 5 minutes.

Minnesota 7, Cleveland 6 -- Jose Offerman’s bases-loaded single in the 15th inning drove in the winning run as the Twins won at home.