David Ortiz hits his fifth home run of the spring as Boston tops Cleveland.

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) – Curt Schilling is ready to start the season right now.

He allowed one run on two hits in six innings and the Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians 3-1 Wednesday. The right-hander was on a 75-pitch limit and threw 74.

The season doesn’t begin for more than two weeks, but Schilling said he would be ready if it opened with his next start.

“I felt as strong after the sixth as I did when I started the game,” he said.

Nomar Garciaparra returned to the Boston lineup after missing four games with a sore heel and went 0-for-2 with a walk. He’s hitless in eight at-bats in spring training.

David Ortiz went 2-for-3, including his fifth homer in the sixth off loser Giovanni Carrara. Boston’s other runs scored on Kevin Millar’s sacrifice fly in the fourth and Cesar Crespo’s RBI single in the seventh.

“When the pitcher’s in a position when he has to throw a strike and David knows it’s coming, he puts a hurting on it,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said.

Indians starter Jason Stanford allowed one run and three hits in four innings.

Schilling is living up to the expectations the Red Sox had when they obtained him from Arizona last November, setting up a powerful one-two punch with Pedro Martinez.

“He’s exactly where he wants to be,” Francona said.

Schilling threw 50 strikes, struck out two and did not walk a batter. He came into training camp with four pitches and has added a changeup.

“I had a chance to throw all my pitches,” he said. “My command got here a little quicker this spring than normal.”

He gave up Casey Blake’s fourth homer in the third and Jody Gerut’s double in the fourth. The only other batter to reach base against Schilling was Chris Clapinski, who got to second when left fielder Brian Daubach dropped his fly ball for an error.

In his other outings this spring, Schilling pitched three shutout innings against Northeastern and allowed one run on two hits in 3 2-3 innings against the Cincinnati Reds.

“It’s starting to be more regualr-season-like as far as pitch selection, how I go about setting guys up,” he said. “I can mentally start to get locked in a little bit differently than early in the spring.”

AP-ES-03-17-04 1738EST