BOSTON — So maybe Super Curt isn’t that bad after all.

Answering his critics with one of his strongest outings of the season, Curt Schilling dominated the Cleveland Indians and pitched the Red Sox to a 5-3 win last night at Fenway Park. The win is Boston’s fourth in a row and fifth in its last six games.

Schilling was superb from his opening pitch, baffling the Indians with a sharp, diving split-fingered fastball, a 90-plus mph fastball and a slick changeup. When he left the game with a 4-1 lead, the Fenway fans gave him a well-deserved standing ovation.

Boston’s shaky middle relief corps (excepting Hideki Okajima, of course) made those fans and Schilling sweat once the big righty hit the showers. J.C. Romero walked the only two hitters he faced to open the eighth inning. Javier Lopez came on to get two big outs but one was a sacrifice fly by old friend Trot Nixon to center that plated a run and sliced Schilling’s lead to 4-2.

Brendan Donnelly retired the final batter in the eighth but the ninth didn’t go smoothly either, even with Jonathan Papelbon taking the mound. The Sox closer surrendered a painful leadoff walk and then a single and an RBI double that cut Boston’s lead to 5-3 and brought Cleveland star Grady Sizemore to the plate with two runners in scoring position.

But that’s when Papelbon found his game. First he got Sizemore to pop out to third base. Then Casey Blake swung at a two-strike pitch that clearly hit him on his hands. The umpire at first ruled that Blake was to take first base but he was overruled and Blake was called out.

“Originally they ruled it hit him, which it did,” said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. “Our contention was that he swung, which he did. That’s what they checked and fortunately for us [the call was changed]. That’s big, big for us. We were in a bind.”

With the call going in his favor, Papelbon responded by blowing away Travis Hafner with first a 96-and then a 97-mph fastball to end the game and secure his 13th save of the season.

The tense moments nearly overshadowed an excellent performance by Schilling. He struck out a season-high 10 hitters, most with a sharp split-fingered fastball that fell from the strike zone at the last possible moment. The last time Schilling struck out 10 or more hitters was last June 24th.

“He really threw in my opinion, his best split of the year,” said Francona. “He really pitched. To put up zeroes right to the end against a team that good, that’s a really good effort.”

Schilling was coming off his worst performance of the season last week at Yankee Stadium when the Yanks pounded out 12 hits and scored six runs over six innings to win easily, 6-1. The Yankees jumped Schilling, with Hideki Matsui slamming a two-run homer in the first inning and light-hitting Doug Mientkiewicz hitting a solo blast in the fourth inning.

The next day, Schilling was treated to some stark criticism during his weekly Boston radio appearance. Detractors pointed out that Schilling’s most recent outings showed a disturbing trend where he wasn’t striking out hitters (an average of 5 per start) and couldn’t keep them from putting good wood (7.4 hits per start) on his pitches.

A proud, or even cocky veteran, Schilling didn’t take well to the criticism. He admitted to not being happy with his performance, but to bounce back with such a strong effort against a strong offensive team like the Indians is certainly a positive sign. He says some heavy work with pitching coach John Farrell in recent days led to a revitalized split-fingered fastball.

“I haven’t had that split since probably 2001 or ’02. Not even close,” he said.

Schilling said Farrell worked on several slight changes to his motion that he made sure to bring out to the mound.

“It’s been a rough couple weeks for me from a performance standpoint. Anyone who knows me knows that it’s 24-7 on my mind,” he said. “We made some adjustments over the last seven, eight, 10 days. Hopefully I can look back on the last four days as a turning point for me, physically and mentally.”

The Red Sox gave Schilling all the support he needed in the middle innings. They scored two in the fourth off the Indians’ starter, Cliff Lee (2-2) when Kevin Youkilis, J.D. Drew and Mike Lowell all doubled. Drew knocked in Youkilis and Lowell plated Drew to give Boston a 2-0 lead.

Manny Ramirez made it 3-0 in the fifth with a line drive rocket homer to left. Cleveland’s only uprising off Schilling came in the sixth inning when Blake doubled to left and Victor Martinez singled him in. The Sox added a significant, and thrilling, insurance run in the seventh when Kevin Youkilis drove a Roberto Hernandez pitch to the triangle in center that bounded away from Sizemore.

Youkilis flew around the bases and giddily ran through the windmill sign from third base coach De Marlo Hale and easily scored on an inside-the-park home run. That pushed the Sox’ lead to 4-1 and allowed Schilling to leave with a comfortable lead. The shaky bullpen nearly blew the lead but the Red Sox’ winning ways continued.

kmcnamar@projo.com