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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Johnson Fans 15 In 3-2 Win Over Angels

Larry Larue Tacoma News Tribune

Mike Blowers had to keep reminding himself to stay alert - not the kind of the thing a major-league third baseman often worries about.

But then, it was Randy Johnson pitching in Saturday night’s 3-2 Mariners win.

Not many California Angels got around to pulling the ball. In fact, more than half the time they didn’t put a ball in play.

“When Randy’s into it like he was in the ninth inning, you almost forget you’re playing,” Blowers said. “He’s amazing.”

On a night when Johnson sent the Angels walking back to the dugout again and again, he sent 31,275 fans into delirium - and Seattle Mariners manager Lou Piniella scrambling for words to describe his ace.

A 15-strikeout, complete-game victory over the front-running California Angels has that effect on a team, a manager and a stadium, and the “Big Unit” delivered a victory Saturday night that was nothing if not electric.

After walking leadoff hitter Tony Phillips to open the game, Johnson struck out the side in the Angels’ first inning, throwing one fastball 97 miles per hour. In the ninth inning - nearly three hours and more than 130 pitches later - he struck out the side again, running a 98 mph fastball past pinch hitter Mark Dalesandro.

“When I get a lead, I want to bury the other team,” Johnson said.

Animated, adrenaline-pumped and focused, Johnson was oblivious in the ninth inning to the Kingdome crowd, which was on its feet chanting ‘Randy! Randy!’ as he slammed the door closed on his eighth win of the season.

“You get him a lead, he just gets tougher and tougher and tougher,” Piniella said. “This team picks it up a notch when he’s out there. He’s an emotional player and you get caught up in that with him.”

Midway through the game, Johnson’s emotions were wreaking havoc in the clubhouse, where he was stomping and screaming after giving up a two-run double to journeyman Rex Hudler that gave California a 2-0 lead in the fifth inning.

Against Chuck Finley, 12-5 with a 2.14 career earned run average vs. Seattle, that lead looked large, and Johnson knew it.

“I made a mistake,” Johnson said. “You make a mistake to a major-league hitter, you have to pay for it.”

Finley made his an inning later, and it beat him.

Rich Amaral blooped a double into left field and Luis Sojo drew a base on balls to bring up Edgar Martinez. Finley worked the count full, then tried a forkball.

Martinez hit it over the left-field fence for a three-run home run. The crowd had its first electric moment - and Johnson had his lead.

After giving up that two-run double in the fifth, Johnson retired the final 14 Angels, striking out five of the last six men and striking out the side in the ninth inning.

“It was a playoff atmosphere there in the ninth inning,” Chris Bosio said. “I was watching the last inning on the tube in here, and he was growling and pounding his chest and snarling - I turned to somebody and said, “How would you like to have to face that?”’

In a final inning in which any one swing could have tied it, the Angels sent up Carlos Martinez, Damion Easley and pinch hitter Dalesandro. Johnson sent each of them back to the dugout without so much as allowing a ball to be put in play.

“I got Bobby Ayala up in the bullpen because Randy had thrown a lot of pitches,” Piniella said of the ninth inning. “But the way he went at those last three hitters, I wasn’t about to get in his way.”

After striking out Martinez, Johnson pounded his chest with his glove and barked loudly enough to be heard in the third deck. After making Easley victim No. 14, he did the same, although by now the crowd had drowned out his barking.

And when he blew a third strike past Dalesandro, matching the second-highest single-game strikeout total of his career, Johnson was mobbed by teammates who hadn’t had much to do for a few minutes.

“He was out there giving it every ounce of strength, guts and will that he had,” Piniella said. “And the team was feeding off him.”