BOSTON — After a steady diet of knuckleballs (61-66 mph), slow curveballs (58-59) and a few batting-practice fastballs (72-74) from Tim Wakefield, Boston manager Terry Francona likes to follow him in a game with his power arms out of the bullpen.

Nothing can mess up a hitter more than seeing soft stuff for a bunch of innings from Wakefield and then trying to hit fastballs that, in comparison, look like they’re coming in at 200 mph.

So it was for the Diamondbacks against Manny Delcarmen in the eighth inning last night after Wakefield had tossed seven shutout innings, silencing Arizona on two hits.

Delcarmen blew away Mark Reynolds with a 98-mph fastball. Reynolds, the first batter he faced, was about a half-hour late swinging at strike three. Delcarmen then touched 99 and 98 on the radar gun to Chris Young before retiring him on a foul popup to third on an 81-mph breaking ball that, not surprisingly, had Young way out in front.

The right-hander finished off his dominant inning by whipping a 97-mph fastball past Miguel Montero, whose wave at the missile was very late.

“Following Wake is a good combination anyway, but Manny, that ball came out of his hand today as good as I’ve ever seen,” said Francona.

skrasner@projo.com