Another night with blood on the sock of Curt Schilling, but not much on the scoreboard. There are symbols to this sudden Red Sox rampage through October, and that is one of them.

The man with the stitched together ankle out-willed another lineup Sunday night, with six stirring innings that led the Red Sox past St. Louis 6-2 and into a 2-0 lead in the World Series.

The Red Sox are rolling, except on defense. This was their sixth straight postseason victory, for a team so afire its most dangerous hitter at the moment is batting ninth, and eight errors in two games are only a footnote.

The Cardinals, meanwhile, are 1-6 on the road in the postseason, and 6-0 at home. They are hoping the math means a much different World Series come Tuesday in Game 3 in Busch Stadium.

Schilling, dominating as he limped and bled, gave up one unearned run and four hits in six innings. That to go with the one run he gave the New York Yankees in seven innings of Game 6. One of the bugle calls that signaled this charge.

"I feel like I've been beat up a little bit," Schilling said after the game. "...In the third inning, I tweaked my hip flexor a little bit so things were kind of piling up."

The beauty of Fenway Park was lost on the Cardinals, who found nothing here this weekend but defeat, frustration, cold weather and deadly hits by Mark Bellhorn.

Such were their struggles that their most promising inning against Schilling was ruined when Reggie Sanders missed the bag running around second.

In two days, their pitchers have 14 walks and three hit batters, giving the Red Sox 17 free baserunners, which is like sprinkling gasoline on an open flame. The Cardinals had only five hits Sunday.

And they must now understand how danger lurks to the last moment of every inning. All six Boston runs were scored with two out.

So Busch Stadium and its roaring masses of red, which revived the Cardinals once already this month, will have to do the job again, if they are to make this a fight.

Schilling received ample support at the plate but virtually none in the field, where he had to work around four errors, a record-tying three by third baseman Bill Mueller. No team had four errors in a World Series game in 22 years. Boston has now done it twice in two nights.

And nobody has ever had eight the first two games. Detroit had the old record of seven, from 1909. But it hasn't mattered. Yet.

Jason Varitek's two-run triple staked Schilling to a 2-0 lead in the first. "I just made sure I wasn't over anxious," Varitek said. "I saw the ball really well. I was able to get a change up in the middle of the plate and get the good part of the bat on it."

Bellhorn's two-run double made it 4-1 in the fourth, the latest swing in the stunning renaissance of the Boston second baseman.

Through the first eight postseason games, Bellhorn had no RBI. In the past four, he has eight.

Orlando Cabrera's two-run single in the sixth made the margin even more comfortable.

That would be plenty.

The only St. Louis run against Schilling came in the fourth when Mueller could not handle a hard Sanders hopper, which allowed Albert Pujols to score.

All in all, Schilling seemed a calm and steady veteran, oblivious to the pain or the pressure, until his bullpen took over in the seventh.

"(Schilling) was battling out there and he was battling with his ankle. We did the right thing getting him out of there," Varitek said.

Regarding the possibility of having to pitch again, Schilling said, "I hope I won't have to pitch again, but I guarantee that team (the Cardinals) believes in themselves as much as we do ourselves."

But it is the Cardinals who are failing so far.

Starter Matt Morris asked for quick trouble with two walks in the first, which were followed by Varitek's triple.

So it goes these days for St. Louis, whose pitchers have been scored upon in the first inning in eight of the last nine postseason games - 15 runs in all. That is particularly hazardous against Boston. The Red Sox are 8-0 in the postseason when scoring first.

And the Cardinals' misery spread to the basepaths. When Tony Womack laced a drive into right center in the second inning, it seemed like a sure double, sending Sanders to third. A true jam for Schilling.

Except Sanders missed the second base bag as he ran past, pulled up and went back, frantically waving Womack back to first.

That meant runners were at first and second. Next was Mike Matheny. The Cardinals tried a hit-and-run. Matheny promptly lined into a double play.

If anyone asks the Cardinals how they spent their weekend in New England, that's one of the snapshots to show.

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