It’s a Certainty These Adversaries Will Have Butterflies

It will be flutterball vs. floater when Angel pitcher Steve Sparks and Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield square off today in what is believed to be the 27th time in major league baseball history two knuckleballers have started against each other.

“It’ll be 1-0 or 10-9,” Sparks said. “You never know.”

Added Angel Manager Terry Collins: “The game could be five hours long . . . or an hour and a half.”

That’s how unpredictable knuckleballers can be. If they’re on and throwing strikes early in the count, forcing batters to swing, they can be almost unhittable. If they’re a little wild and forced to throw more traditional pitches, the game can get ugly.

Sometimes, as Sparks has shown, he can be ugly and unhittable on the same night. Against Chicago on Aug. 17, Sparks walked three and gave up a two-run home run in the first inning but gave up one hit over the next seven innings.

“Sometimes it depends on the conditions,” Sparks said. “Humidity helps, and it should be humid [today]. We should both have good knucklers. Hopefully we’ll have good command, and it should be a good game.”

This will be the second time this season two knuckleballers have faced each other--Wakefield opposed former A’s knuckler Tom Candiotti on May 2 at Oakland, with neither starter getting a decision. Sparks and Wakefield have never faced each other in the big leagues, but they did pitch against each other in the minors.

“I’m excited, this is the first time I’ve ever matched up against a knuckleballer [in the big leagues],” Sparks said. “Maybe I’ll come out throwing fastballs and sliders.”

*

Once some in the Boston media heard that Angel first baseman Mo Vaughn was not in Fenway Park on Friday night, it didn’t take long for the speculation to swirl: Vaughn, ashamed of his subpar year in Anaheim, didn’t want to return to Fenway and face his former teammates. Vaughn was ducking reporters. One can only guess what some uninformed Red Sox fans thought.

For the record, the mother of one of Vaughn’s best friends died this week after a lengthy illness, and Vaughn attended her funeral in the Boston area Friday. As a tribute to his friend and his mother, Vaughn had inscribed the letter “T” on his batting helmet in July.

Collins said Vaughn will return to the lineup today as the designated hitter, a position Vaughn will probably retain for this entire trip.

“His ankle is barking a bit,” Collins said, referring to the left ankle Vaughn sprained on opening night. “I don’t think anyone realizes how much his ankle has affected him.

“His other ankle started hurting, he tried to compensate for his ankles and his hip started hurting. I know he wants to play [the field] here, but I’ll let him DH for a while and see if his legs get better.”

TODAY

ANGELS’ STEVE SPARKS (5-10, 4.90 ERA) vs. RED SOX’S TIM WAKEFIELD (4-9, 5.33 ERA)

Fenway Park, 1 p.m. PDT

Radio--KLAC (570), XPRS (1090)

* Update--Garret Anderson is one Angel who doesn’t mind facing Wakefield--the left fielder has a .387 average (12 for 31) against Wakefield in his career, with five home runs and 12 RBIs. Wakefield spent about three months as Boston’s closer, filling in for the injured Tom Gordon and converting 14 of 17 save opportunities, before returning to the rotation when Bret Saberhagen went on the disabled list last week.