Schilling ended last season with 3,116 strikeouts, 14th most in baseball history, a 216-146 record and a 3.46 ERA. In four years with Boston, he’s 53-29.

But he’s shined brightest in the postseason with an 11-2 record, the best of any pitcher with at least 10 decisions, and 2.23 ERA in 19 career starts.

In 2004, Schilling’s first season with the Red Sox after being traded from Arizona, he helped them end an 86-year championship drought.

He became a sports icon in Boston when he won Game 6 of the AL championship series and Game 2 of the 2004 World Series after a surgical procedure to suture a loose tendon in his right ankle. His bloodstained right sock became a part of baseball history.

“He came here at a time when we were aspiring to win a World Series and he was as big a part of it as anybody,” Francona said. “That stuff with the sock, that wasn’t fake. This guy would pitch and he pitched some unbelievably big games.”

Schilling’s injury influenced Boston to sign 2005 Cy Young award winner Bartolo Colon, who is 4-2, to a starting staff that includes Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, youngsters Jon Lester and Justin Masterson and Tim Wakefield.

Boston also has Clay Buchholz, who began the season with Boston but is now at Triple-A Pawtucket. He pitched a no-hitter last Sept. 1.

Losing Schilling “is disappointing, but I think we reached a point where we weren’t counting on Schill, per se,” Epstein said. “We’d never bet against Curt Schilling, but I think we always knew that this was a possibility.”

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