He’s Pitcher Perfect Against 300-Game Winners : Sutton (304 Wins) Outduels Seaver (308) After Earlier Beating Niekro (307)

Lost in all the excitement at Anaheim Stadium Sunday was the fact that the game featured a pitching duel between two potential Hall of Famers, each with over 300 career victories.

For only the second time in modern baseball history, two such pitchers were matched up, and for the second time, it was the Angels’ Don Sutton who came out on top.

Earlier this season, Sutton had topped Cleveland’s Phil Niekro in the first matchup of 300-game winners, and Sunday he beat Tom Seaver in the Angels’ 3-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox.

Actually, Sutton faced Seaver earlier this season when Seaver was with the Chicago White Sox, but that was before Sutton had joined baseball’s prestigious 300-victory club.

Sunday’s victory was No. 304 for Sutton, raising his season record to 9-7. Seaver’s record is 4-9 this season, 2-3 with Boston. He has 308 career victories. But neither he nor Seaver put much significance into the so-called “Hall of Fame� matchup.

Their linescores were almost identical--each pitched six innings, gave up eight hits and struck out three, but Seaver gave up five walks as well as a home run to Bobby Grich, one that broke up a scoreless tie in the fourth inning.

Typically, Sutton downplayed the victory after the game, and he didn’t see the pitching duel with Seaver as significant.

Sutton said: “I’m not pitching against him , anyway--I’m pitching against nine other guys.

“Boston’s a good team. Anybody that has Roger Clemens isn’t going to go into a four-game tailspin. They played well yesterday and they played well today.

“It’s just that I made some pitches when I needed to, Gary (Lucas) did an excellent job and got some people out, and we capitalized on a couple breaks to get some runs.�

Similarly, after 20 years in the game, Seaver has learned not to get too excited about the wins, nor too down after the losses.

“There were a couple of pitches there I wasn’t happy with, but anytime you lose you always want a few pitches back,� Seaver said.

The one in particular that Seaver would like to issue a recall notice on was the home run ball that Grich popped over the center-field fence.

Seaver said: “I pushed a fastball up--it was the same thing he hit out yesterday. When you do that, a major league hitter like Grich is going to jump on it, and sure enough he did.

“I might have been able to get away with that several years ago, but not now.�

While the 41-year-old Seaver’s fastball might have lost some speed, that is about the only concession to age that he will make. He is still as competitive and crafty--adjectives that also apply to Sutton--as he was in his youth with the Mets.

Boston Manager John McNamara was certainly pleased with Seaver’s performance.

“Tom Seaver pitched a very good ballgame,� McNamara said. “We had runners on base every inning, we just couldn’t do anything with it.

“Not to take anything away from (Saturday’s winner) Mike Witt or Don Sutton, but we just haven’t been hitting the way we’re capable of, either.�

Sutton, of course, had something to do with that, keeping the Red Sox offstride for the six innings he pitched, allowing two runners to get on base only once, in the fourth inning, before getting Jim Rice to ground out to end the threat.

Asked if Sutton was throwing especially good stuff Sunday, the American League’s leading hitter (.352), Wade Boggs, who went an uncharacteristic 0 for 4 for the second straight game, said: “Well, he beat us, didn’t he?�

‘I’m not pitching against him (Seaver), anyway--I’m pitching against nine other guys. . . . Boston’s a good team. Anybody that has Roger Clemens isn’t going to go into a four-game tailspin.’--Don Sutton