Pirates’ Wakefield Wins Game of the Decade : Baseball: He beats Candiotti, 2-0, in first NL matchup between knuckleball pitchers in 10 years.

Tim Wakefield and Tom Candiotti brought new meaning to the study of counting pitches Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium.

The number they threw was irrelevant.

The time it took before the pitches reached their target was more interesting.

In the first National League matchup of knuckleball pitchers since Sept. 13, 1982, when the Niekro brothers, Joe and Phil, met, Wakefield and the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Dodgers and Candiotti, 2-0, before 26,558.

Wakefield (4-1) kept hitters lunging at pitches throughout the game, striking out three and giving up six hits in his first major league shutout. He also picked off two runners in the same inning.

He required 107 pitches to beat the Dodgers.

Candiotti, a veteran of nine major league seasons, went six innings, giving up nine hits, a walk and both runs, striking out four.

But the night belonged to Wakefield. And Candiotti, strangely enough, didn’t seem to mind.

“He was very, very impressive,” Candiotti said. “He looked slow, but he was frustrating people, and that’s the purpose of the pitch.”

Candiotti, too, was frustrated. And not only while attempting to hit.

The only runs he gave up came after two game fielding efforts by shortstop Jose Offerman.

In the fifth inning, Offerman scrambled to his left to grab a leadoff bouncer hit behind second base by Jose Lind, but Offerman’s throw pulled first baseman Eric Karros off the bag.

Lind scored on a two-out double by Jay Bell past third baseman Dave Hansen and down the left-field line.

The Pirates added a run in the sixth inning on consecutive hits by Mike LaValliere, John Wehner and Lind. LaValliere’s was a two-out double to right-center field.

Wehner’s was a high-hopper up the middle that Offerman reached, only to throw high to first.

Lind followed by hitting a high, outside pitch into right field to score LaValliere.

“He made some good plays to get to the ball,” Candiotti said of Offerman. “He just couldn’t make the throws. That was the difference right there.”

The Pirates, Candiotti said, “did what a championship team does--just put the ball in play.

“Their defense was outstanding,” he added.

And so was their young pitcher, wearing the same No. 49 as Candiotti and Charlie Hough, the only other two active knuckleball pitchers.

Hough’s wife, Sharon, even came out to watch.

She saw the Dodgers squander scoring opportunities twice in the first four innings.

In the first, Offerman led off with a single, stole second and was balked to third with no one out.

With Brett Butler at the plate, the Dodgers seemed poised for a quick strike against Wakefield, who had given up two runs or less in four of his first five starts.

But Butler grounded to first and Offerman had to hold.

Then Lenny Harris lined out to Barry Bonds in short left, Offerman again staying at third.

Then Karros lofted a fly to left field for the third out.

Butler led off the fourth inning by drawing a walk, and Harris followed by looping a single into center. Then Wakefield recorded two outs without throwing a pitch.

He picked off Butler from second and soon after caught Harris off first.

Karros, having seen an RBI opportunity vanish without a trace, struck out.

Thereafter, the Dodgers went down fairly quietly. Only in the sixth inning did they have two runners on base.

The only time Wakefield’s heart might have skipped a beat was when Henry Rodriguez lifted a long fly to right-center that Andy Van Slyke caught at the wall for the final out.

“Deep down inside I guess I was hoping he’d do well,” Candiotti said.

He got his wish.