BOSTON — Two aging pitchers. Two pitchers trying to grab a little extra glory as their careers wind down. Two former power pitchers who know how to pitch trying to reinvent themselves, to some degree, still able to get outs and give their teams a chance to win.

So it was with Boston’s Curt Schilling and Roger Clemens last night.

Through six innings, they both virtually willed themselves to success.

Schilling looked more in control while early on Clemens didn’t look like the Rocket of old. In the first inning he just looked like an old Rocket, which isn’t surprising since he turned 45 last month and had two cortisone shots in his ailing right elbow after his last start, on Sept. 3.

And Clemens seemed to know he was pitching on fumes last night.

In the first inning, Clemens began barking at plate umpire Lance Barksdale after a 3-and-1 slider was called inside, for a walk that put runners on first and second with one out.

“That was a good pitch. Come on,” is what some lip-readers saw Clemens yell in Barksdale’s direction. Clemens was still badgering Barksdale after the next batter, Mike Lowell, chopped an RBI single through the shortstop hole, giving the Sox a quick 1-0 lead.

In the old days, when he was younger, or even over the past few years when he still was a dominant pitcher for the most part, Clemens might have been irritated by such calls. But he wouldn’t be as likely to get on an umpire so quickly.

The third batter of the game? On his 12th pitch?

It sure seemed like a sign that Clemens knew he was on borrowed time, that he had very little fuel in his tank and that he was desperate for every strike he could get.

Maybe Clemens’s little tantrum paid off. He got the benefit of the doubt on a letters-high 3-and-2 fastball to J.D. Drew leading off the fourth. Barksdale called it strike three.

And while he often looked to be laboring, the bottom line for Clemens was six innings pitched, two hits and the one run, which was unearned. The right-hander fanned four: all in a row, the last two outs in the third and the first two in the fourth. Clemens, whose fastball topped out at 91 mph, was lifted with the game 1-1, having thrown 87 pitches (49 for strikes), a high percentage of them sliders.

Schilling, meanwhile, mowed down the Yanks without seemingly working up a sweat. He had the New York hitters off-balance as he mixed in a fastball that generally hovered around 89 mph with a splitter, a cutter, a curveball and a changeup. Through seven innings, he had thrown only 69 pitches.

Gold Glove at first

After seeing Jason Giambi butcher several balls at first base over the first two games of the series, and noting Giambi was just a .222 career hitter against Boston starter Curt Schilling, Yankee manager Joe Torre plugged in Doug Mientkiewicz, a Gold Glove caliber, at the position.

Torre looked like a genius in the first inning.

With runners at first and second and two outs, Jason Varitek scalded a bouncer just inside the first-base line.

Mientkiewicz made an outstanding diving grab of the ball, got up, saw that Clemens might not beat Varitek to the bag and raced to the base, sliding head-first and tagging it for the inning-ending out just before Varitek arrived.

The play saved at least one run, and quite possibly two, which would have put Boston two or three runs ahead of New York. Mientkiewicz also went 2-for-3 against Schilling, making him 5-for-13 (.385) in his career against the right-hander.

skrasner@projo.com