Red Sox Notes

Yesterday I noted some of the milestones that could come into play during today's game against Kansas City. Those were milestones for all baseball history but this morning I thought I'd mention some of the team specific milestones that could come to pass today.

I mentioned that if Curt Schilling won today that he'd be tied with Eddie Cicotte for 93rd place on the all-time wins list. However, Cicotte also played for Boston and he had 52 wins for the Red Sox. Curt Schilling has just 44.

Schilling also has some interesting strikeout milestones within his reach. Currently Curt Schilling is 39th on the all-time Red Sox list for strikeouts. With just 5 more - he ties Aaron Sele. With 7 more strikeouts - Schilling ties the infamous Mike Torrez. And with 10 more - Schilling ties the truly immortal Babe Ruth for 36th place on the Red Sox all-time list for strikeouts.

Some of the potential batting Red Sox milestones include:

- Manny needs 2 doubles to tie Rick Burleson for 24th place on the all-time Red Sox list. With 3 more two-baggers - Manny will tie Trot Nixon and Reggie Smith for 22nd place in Red Sox history.

- Jason Varitek needs 2 HR to tie Trot Nixon for 17th place on the Red Sox all-time list. (Two HR from Varitek today would be very nice indeed.)

- Manny needs 4 RBI to reach 716 in his Red Sox career and tie Frank Malzone for 12th place on the all-time Red Sox list. With 3 RBI - David Ortiz will tie John Valentin for 24th place on the all-time Red Sox list with 528 since he joined Boston.

- I mentioned yesterday that Manny needs just 4 more total bases to tie the great Joe DiMaggio for 76th place on the all-time total bases list. Manny also needs just 4 total bases to tie Hall of Famer Tris Speaker for 15th place on the all-time Red Sox list for total bases.

- Varitek needs to be hit by just one pitch to tie Manny for 11th place on the Red Sox all-time hit by pitch list.

As far as the competition is concerned - Mike Sweeney needs just 3 HR to tie Amos Otis with 193 for the 2nd most HR in Royals history. Even with those 3 extra HR - Sweeney would just crack the top 10 on the Red Sox all-time list behind Rico Pertocelli's 210 in 9th place and well behind Ted Williams' 521.

The over/under for wins for the Royals is 67.5 wins. The over looks like a good bet since the Royals had 62 wins last year but also 31 blown saves. With a little reduction in blown saves an extra 6 wins should be easy even in the tough AL Central.

I should also mention that last year Schilling went 0-1 in one start in KC. He went just over 7 innings and allowed 5 earned runs but also struck out 7. For his career - Schilling is 3-2 with a 3.86 ERA against the Royals but at Kaufman Stadium he is a Joel Pineiro like 1-2 with a 6.20 ERA. I think the Red Sox win today but with the high odds and small return - best to wait for better value bets later in the season.