The ball was in Schilling's hands, and so was the decision. "I was sure he was taking," Schilling said. "Tek was sure he was swinging. I was wrong."
He threw a fastball, the fastest his 40-year-old arm had summoned all afternoon, registering 95 miles per hour on the electric scoreboard in McAfee Coliseum. Stewart swung, and the moment dissolved in regret. A line drive, sharply struck by the righthanded-hitting Stewart, kicked up dirt after streaking past second baseman Alex Cora, who never had a chance, and continued into right field.
"I had a plan," Schilling said. "I shook 'Tek off. And I've got the big 'what if' for the rest of my life."
The no-hitter was gone. The bid for a perfect game ended with two outs in the fifth, when shortstop Julio Lugo, who handled the first two chances in the ninth, ground balls by Mark Kotsay and Jason Kendall, muffed a routine roller by first baseman Dan Johnson that hopped up on him at the last moment. Until Stewart's single, that error had accounted for Oakland's only base runner. Center fielder Coco Crisp sprinted to the wall to reach overhead and gather Kotsay's bid for extra bases to open the sixth ("That's when I said to myself, 'OK, this might really happen,' " Schilling said), and third baseman Mike Lowell smothered a tricky hopper by Mark Ellis down the third base line to start the seventh.
But the score was still 1-0, Ortiz's first-inning home run off Joe Blanton accounting for the only run, and now the tying run was on base. There was a game to be won. Varitek took a couple steps toward the mound, then caught a glimpse of Schilling's face.
"Curt had tremendous energy after that hit," Varitek said. "It's like he said, 'Hey, I'm going, I'm getting on this mound, let's go.' I started to take a timeout, but his demeanor pushed me right back to the plate."
Two more pitches, and it was over, Cora gathering Ellis's pop fly on the foul side of the right-field line to end it.
