Johnson Aggravates Injury, Indians Big Unit Exits In 7th Of M’S 1-0 Victory

Randy Johnson has seven more starts left in a bid to become the first 20-game winner in Seattle history - and help the Mariners win their second A.L. West title in three years.

The Mariners don’t think he’ll miss any of them.

“We think he’s going to be OK,” Mariners manager Lou Piniella said after Johnson had to leave Wednesday night’s 1-0 win over Cleveland in the seventh inning because of a bruised middle finger on his left hand.

“It bothered him when he went out for the seventh,” Piniella said. “So we went ahead and got him out. But we don’t anticipate him missing a start.”

Said Johnson, who allowed two hits and struck out eight: “It’s a little sore and a little swollen. But hopefully it’ll get taken care of in the next five days.”

Johnson (17-4) re-aggravated an injury that he sustained in Milwaukee Aug. 3, a 6-5 win when he caught a ball with his bare hand.

“It bothered me when I would release the pitch,” he said. “That’s the last finger that the ball touches before I throw. It kind of felt like it continued to get a little sorer as the game progressed. I just figured it would be good to come out of the game and get it taken care of.”

Indians manager Mike Hargrove would like to have seen Johnson leave the game much earlier.

“If it had been the second inning instead of the seventh, maybe,” he said. “By the seventh inning, you don’t have much time to recover.”

Johnson, bidding to win his second A.L. Cy Young Award in three seasons, outpitched Charles Nagy (12-9) as the Mariners went up by 1-1/2 games over Anaheim, which lost a doubleheader to the New York Yankees.

“Early in the game, I thought he struggled,” Hargrove said. “It didn’t look like he had his velocity. But even Randy Johnson struggling is better than most.”

“I’m glad we got a hit off him,” Hargrove said.

Edgar Martinez hit his 22nd home run in the fourth inning for the game’s only run.

Seattle won a 1-0 game for the first time since May 25, 1994, when Johnson won at Oakland with a complete game.

Johnson leads the majors with 264 strikeouts. He allowed a double by Matt Williams in the fifth and an infield single by Tony Fernandez to start the seventh.

“Today, about the fifth inning, it (his finger) started bothering me,” Johnson said. “I couldn’t put a lot of pressure on the ball. If I did, as soon as I released the ball, it bothered my finger.”

After Fernandez’s single, Johnson went 2-0 on the next hitter, Kevin Seitzer, before trainer Rick Griffin and manager Lou Piniella went to the mound.

Piniella took out Johnson and brought in Mike Timlin, who pitched to pinch-hitter David Justice.

Justice drew a walk that was charged to Johnson. But Timlin got Manny Ramirez to ground into a double play and retired Williams on a fly ball.

Norm Charlton and Heathcliff Slocumb finished the combined two-hitter. Slocumb got his 20th save, and his third since being sent to Seattle just before the trading deadline July 31.

In his 27th start of the season, Johnson made 88 pitches, including 58 strikes.

The Mariners recorded their sixth shutout of 1997. Johnson has been involved in four of them.

Notes

Johnson improved his career record to 10-3 against Cleveland, 2-0 this season. … The Mariners have homered in 15 of their last 16 games. … Cleveland was shut out for the seventh time this season. … Nagy’s career mark fell to 6-8 against Seattle, including 1-2 this year. He’s 2-6 lifetime at the Kingdome. … Ken Griffey Jr. received his 19th intentional walk.

Mariners 1, Indians 0 Cleveland AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Vizquel ss 3 0 0 0 1 2 .290 TFernandez 2b 4 0 1 0 0 2 .277 Seitzer dh 2 0 0 0 0 1 .255 a-Justice ph-dh 1 0 0 0 1 0 .332 Ramirez rf 3 0 0 0 0 0 .329 MaWilliams 3b 3 0 1 0 0 0 .249 SAlomar c 3 0 0 0 0 0 .328 Manto 1b 2 0 0 0 0 1 .222 b-Thome ph-1b 1 0 0 0 0 0 .286 Giles lf 3 0 0 0 0 1 .269 Grissom cf 3 0 0 0 0 1 .247 Totals 28 0 2 0 2 8 Seattle AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Cora 2b 4 0 1 0 0 1 .315 ARodriguez ss 4 0 0 0 0 1 .296 Griffey Jr cf 3 0 0 0 1 1 .305 EMartinez dh 4 1 2 1 0 0 .327 Buhner rf 4 0 1 0 0 1 .239 Sorrento 1b 3 0 1 0 0 2 .267 DaWilson c 3 0 1 0 0 0 .274 RDavis 3b 3 0 1 0 0 0 .280 Amaral lf 3 0 2 0 0 0 .262 Totals 31 1 9 1 1 6 Cleveland 000 000 000 0 Seattle 000 100 00x 1 a-walked for Seitzer in the 7th. b-safe on error for Manto in the 8th.

E-TFernandez (8), Charlton (3).

LOB-Cleveland 3, Seattle 7.

2B-MaWilliams (22), Buhner (16), DaWilson (28). HR- EMartinez (22) off Nagy. RBIs-EMartinez (89).

SB-Amaral (12). CS-Vizquel (8). GIDP-Ramirez, Buhner, Amaral.

Runners left in scoring position-Cleveland 2 (MaWilliams, Manto); Seattle 3 (ARodriguez 2, DaWilson).

Runners moved up-SAlomar, Cora. DP-Cleveland 2 (Vizquel, TFernandez and Manto), (MJackson, TFernandez and Thome); Seattle 2 (DaWilson, ARodriguez, Sorrento and Cora), (ARodriguez, Cora and Sorrento).

Cleveland IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Nagy L,12-9 7-1/3 8 1 1 1 6 103 4.08 MJackson 2/3 1 0 0 0 0 5 2.80 Seattle IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA RaJohnson W,17-4 6 2 0 0 2 8 88 2.32 Timlin 1-1/3 0 0 0 0 0 11 2.97 Charlton 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 3 7.21 Slocumb S,20 1-1/3 0 0 0 0 0 19 5.34 RaJohnson pitched to 2 batters in the 7th. Inherited runnersscored-MJackson 2-0, Timlin 1-0, Slocumb 1-0. IBB-off Nagy (Griffey Jr) 1. T-2:28. A-32,546 (59,084).