MINNEAPOLIS -- Last night's game, on paper, had the look of a pitching duel that comes along once or twice a season: Johan Santana (6-4, 3.16 ERA) vs. Curt Schilling (9-2, 3.81), the guy who won the 2004 Cy Young against the guy who placed second. And, as is often the case in life, the event did not live up to the hype; in this case, it exceeded it.
``I knew from jump street he was on," Schilling later said. ``I knew he was going to have to make one mistake for us to win."
Santana, for eight spellbinding innings, was channeling Randy Johnson, amassing 13 strikeouts, the highest total by a lefthander against the Sox since 1972 with the exception of that man. Mickey Lolich, in 1972, fanned 15 Red Sox, and Johnson matched that in 1998. Santana walked no one and found the plate with 75 of his 102 pitches.
``Did he look nasty from up there?" David Ortiz asked the assembled writers.
Schilling, for eight workmanlike innings, was managing the game and himself, getting double plays when he needed them, facing just 19 batters through six innings, and exiting with eight fewer K's than Santana but an equivalent end result: one run allowed. Both gave up just a single run, on a solo homer, in the seventh (Jason Varitek homered for the Sox; Michael Cuddyer for the Twins).
But, in the 12th, the quality arms had come and gone: Schilling, Jonathan Papelbon, and Mike Timlin for the Sox; Santana, Joe Nathan, and Juan Rincon for the Twins. That left the game in the hands of Jesse Crain and Julian Tavarez. Crain allowed a run on an Alex Gonzalez fielder's choice, putting the Sox ahead, 2-1. But Tavarez, usually of value because he sinks the ball, loaded the bases, hitting Cuddyer, allowing a scorched ground-rule double to Justin Morneau, and intentionally walking Torii Hunter to load the bases and set up a double play.
That brought up Jason Kubel, who, with the count full, hit a ball so high that it disappeared against the Metrodome's white roof. It was against that blank canvas that with one brushstroke he created a masterpiece: a walkoff grand slam for a 5-2 win.
``It was a grind game," Schilling said, explaining why he told his manager he'd had enough after 91 pitches, 17 fewer than his season average. The Sox could have used more out of him, but he wasn't able to provide it.
For eight innings, though, he was as good as he's been this year. The control freak had not walked anyone in six games covering 34 1/3 innings and had not walked the leadoff hitter in any of the 88 innings he'd begun before last night. But this night began with a walk of Luis Castillo. Still, Castillo was erased moments later when Lew Ford grounded into a double play begun by Gonzalez.
