Clemens bests Schilling - barely

Schill vs. the Rocket.

The Big Blowhard vs. the Texas Con Man.

A big righty who has four kids and does a lot of charity work against a big righty who has four kids and does a lot of charity work.

Two guys who originally were drafted by the Red Sox. Two guys with championship rings. Two guys who showed up fat in spring training in their last years with the Sox.

Curt Schilling and Roger Clemens have much in common. Clemens was born in Ohio. Schilling campaigned in Ohio for George Bush.

Last night they matched up at Fenway Park in the final regular-season game between the Red Sox and Yankees. It was an ESPN special, legitimate television competition for the football game taking place a few miles down Route 1. And it all came down to the last play as David Ortiz popped up to Derek Jeter on a 2-and-2 pitch from Mariano Rivera with the bases loaded. Sox lose, 4-3.

Clemens went six innings, giving up two hits and no earned runs. Schilling was even better for seven, then blew up in the eighth and coughed up a three-run homer to (who else?) Jeter.

Simply sensational theater.

"It was a great ballgame, well played on both sides," said Clemens. "Derek Jeter - he's one of the reasons I got off the couch to come back and play again. And now I get to work with some great young players [Joba Chamberlain] who are going to close down Yankee Stadium next year."

"Tonight boiled down to two mistakes," said Schilling, who surrendered a solo homer to Robinson Cano in the fifth.

Schilling needed only 69 pitches to get through the first seven innings, but he was kicked around in the eighth. Jeter beat him with the message-sending, three-run homer on an 84-mile-per-hour splitter. It was Schill's 90th and final pitch of the night.

"I missed horribly in the most crucial part of the game," said Schilling. "I was trying to bounce that ball in the dirt."

The Yankees beat the Red Sox 10 times in 18 meetings this year and the Nation can't be comfortable with the prospect of facing the Bronx Bombers in the 2007 ALCS. The Sox lost six of their last seven to the Yankees.

"We beat up on each other so much it takes a toll on both teams," said Terry Francona, who did not receive a contract extension through 2013.

The only time Schilling and Clemens matched up before last night was Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, a game eventually won by Schilling's Arizona Diamondbacks.

"It's hard not to remember that," said Schilling. "I was thinking about it before the game. I mean, you don't often pitch the seventh game of the World Series."

Their lives have intersected on other occasions. In 1988 when Clemens and Bruce Hurst anchored the Sox rotation, general manager Lou Gorman made a midsummer deal to acquire Baltimore righty Mike Boddicker. In exchange the Sox gave the Orioles Brady Anderson and a minor league pitcher named Curt Schilling. Three years later, in the winter of 1991, Clemens lectured Schilling in a weight room inside the Astrodome. Schilling said the conversation turned his career around. This spring, when the Yankees signed Clemens, Schilling said a lot of flattering things about the Rocket, but added, "We don't need him."

So there they were last night, warming up in the home and visitors' bullpen in right field at Fenway Park. History vs. history. It figured to be a gold rush for Yankees first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz if he could pocket a few game balls.

Hundreds of Fenway fans took photographs of the legends as they threw their warm-up tosses and I think I saw Matt Estrella leaning over the bullpen rail using his cellphone to get some surveillance on the Rocket.

Schilling and Clemens exited their respective bullpens at 8:06, almost belly-bumping (Schill would have won that one) as they crisscrossed while heading toward the first and third base dugouts.

Clemens hadn't pitched here since beating the Red Sox in Game 3 of the ALCS in '03 - a game that is best remembered for Pedro Martinez's throw-down of Don Zimmer during one of the midgame skirmishes. The Rocket never has lost a regular-season game in Fenway Park while pitching against the Red Sox.

"I've always enjoyed this town," said the Rocket. "I love coming here. In 2003 the fans gave me a great sendoff when I retired - whatever time that was - but I'd like to come back here someday and just watch the game as a fan and not have to work."

In his last two outings against the Sox, he's allowed only one earned run on four hits in 12 innings. The Yankees won both games. Not bad.

Schilling, meanwhile, has won only two games since June 7, but he has to be considered Boston's second-best starter as the Sox prepare for the playoffs. He has reinvented himself as a blogging Greg Maddux and he'd be a lot better than 8-8 if the Sox scored any runs on the nights he works.

His downfall last night started when Mientkiewicz (who had a great night throwing the leather around first) hit a one-out single to left in the eighth. Pinch hitter Jason Giambi singled to left.

With two out, Jeter worked the count to 2 and 2, fouled off a pitch, then crushed a splitter that didn't spilt. Ballgame.

In the end, Schilling wasn't bad. But Clemens was better. And the Sox were not bad. But the Yankees were better.

Boston's seasonlong lead is 4 1/2 games with only 12 to play, but if you like the Red Sox you do not like the idea of facing these Yankees again in October.

Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is dshaughnessy@globe.com.