Meanwhile, with less than 400,000 Google hits to his credit, Tim Wakefield began to float his knuckleball before a less-than-enthused crowd of less than 16,000 at Cleveland’s Progressive Field.
The contrast in settings was striking. There was the 21-year-old rock star with the triple-digit fastball and an illustrious career ahead of him as the Nationals ace pitching about 400 miles down I-76 from the 43-year-old knuckleballer, who rarely tops 70 mph and is simply holding down a rotation spot until an injured teammate returns.
In one stadium, you could hardly hear yourself think. In another, hushed conversations in the bleachers were audible at home plate.
Yet, for all the pomp and circumstance surrounding Strasburg’s debut — and the veritable pall enveloping Cleveland and its last-place club — the results were remarkably similar, even if the two diametrically opposed right-handers go about it in a different way.
While Strasburg fanned 14 and walked none in a stunning effort, Wakefield matched a season high with six punchouts of his own. He also did not walk a batter.
The Nationals’ future set up his first strikeout victim with a 99-mph fastball and then put him away with an 83-mph hook. Wakefield recorded his first K of the night by throwing five straight knuckleballs between 66- and 67-mph and then a curveball clocked at 60 that got Austin Kearns swinging.
The youngster, who threw 69 percent of his pitches for strikes, allowed two runs in seven innings, chalking up win No. 1. The veteran threw a strike 70 percent of the time, gave up two runs (one earned) in 7 1/3 innings and recorded career win No. 191.
And while Strasburg simply planted a tiny seed for what Washington hopes is baseball immortality, the old man up the road continued to quietly cement his name in Red Sox lore, setting the franchise’s all-time record for innings pitched by surpassing another fireballer in Roger Clemens.
To celebrate, Strasburg got a shaving cream pie in the face and was forced to wear the silver wig. The ever-classy Wakefield simply popped the cork with a few of the fellas.
"To be able to share it with everybody on the team and the coaching staff it means a lot to me," Wakefield said of the record. "As long as I’ve been here, the guys have supported me no matter what. Pitch good or pitch bad they’ve always been behind me and I wanted to be able to share just a single moment like tonight with them. It was important to me."
In addition to showcasing dominant stuff, Strasburg appears to have the cliches in place already, perhaps the product of large media sessions since he was taken first overall in 2009. But when Wakefield started his postgame meeting with reporters by saying the record means more because the Sox won, you know he means it.
It certainly helped his team enjoy the milestone a bit more.
"It’s a tremendous accomplishment — but it makes it a heck of a lot neater when he’s sitting on a win," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. "The fact that there’s some pretty amazing names that he’s gone by, I think it says a lot about his tenacity. He’s been doing this a long time and he still does it pretty good."
"Pretty good" may fall a bit short on Tuesday. Wakefield allowed a run in the first, but only because Adrian Beltre booted a routine grounder with two outs. He proceeded to retire the next 15 men in order until a two-out single in the sixth.
After securing the innings pitched record two outs into the seventh, Wakefield served up a solo homer to Shelley Duncan. But he got the first out of the eighth and watched his bullpen wiggle out of trouble to improve to 2-1 with a 2.60 ERA as a starter on the road this year.
"I really need to thank [pitching coach] John Farrell for getting my rhythm and my timing back," Wakefield said. "Some little mechanical things that got me back on track and I really felt comfortable out there and obviously the results showed that."
Sure enough, history will look back on June 8, 2010, as the start of something special in Washington. For those few who were concentrating on the events in Cleveland, it was the continuation of something special.
