Johnson Has Orioles Talking Koufax Lefty Ace Goes To 6-0 With Three-Hit Shutout As Seattle Tips Baltimore To Cut Losing Streak

It’s June, and even in this city - where he had never won a major league game - the Big Unit is in bloom.

Snapping the Mariners’ three-game losing streak, Randy Johnson was dominant, pitching a three-hit, 2-0 shutout against the Baltimore Orioles that ran his career mark for the month of June to 18-5.

“I don’t know if I’d compare him to Sandy Koufax yet,” Orioles manager Phil Regan said, “but he’s getting close.”

Jay Buhner slugged a two-run home run in the sixth inning against Baltimore starter Ben McDonald, then did what everyone else in Camden Yards did. He watched Johnson work.

“He was at his best, and that’s something special,” manager Lou Piniella said. “I watched Randy pitch and Jay hit and had an easy night of it.”

Johnson (6-0) only made it look easy. After working in and out of trouble in the early innings, he “locked in” - his words - and sent a parade of 17 consecutive Orioles back to the dugout muttering.

The result?

Johnson ran his personal winning streak, dating back to last season, to eight games, matching his career high. He struck out 12 batters, getting into double figures in that category for the fourth time in nine starts this year - the 54th time in his career.

It was his first complete game of the year, his 13th career shutout.

“I don’t keep track of those things,” Johnson said, although last week he knew precisely what one Yankee batter, Randy Velarde, had hit against him in their careers (.571). “I only pitch once every five days, and my job is to give this team a quality start, win or lose.”

This year, it’s only been the former. Seattle is 20-16 overall - 9-0 in games started by the lanky one.

“You figure you get two runs for Randy in any game, you’ve got a chance to win,” Buhner said.

For the second time in as many games, the Mariners wound up in a pitching duel. Tim Belcher and Tim Wakefield didn’t allow a run in the regulation nine innings at Boston on Sunday, and in Baltimore a day later, McDonald and Johnson were nearly as sharp.

McDonald made one mistake, a low fastball that Buhner hit out with teammate Edgar Martinez aboard. Johnson was magnanimous in victory.

“Ben McDonald is a quality pitcher and it was a tough night for him,” he said. “He had an arbitration hearing today, and that’s not fair. I’m not sorry he lost, but I’m sorry he had to go through that. It couldn’t have helped.”

Though he threw more pitches than in any game this season - 140 - Johnson’s velocity didn’t diminish much in the end. His best fastball of the night was clocked at 97 mph in the sixth inning.

In the ninth, when he struck out the side, he was throwing 96 mph on radar.

“He was just as strong in the end as he was in the beginning,” Regan said. “His breaking ball is unbelievable. He makes you sit on his fastball and then his slider gets you.”

“When you get Randy a lead in the late innings, he turns it up, he gets more competitive,” Piniella said.

When he wakes up this morning, should he choose to take an interest in his own statistics, Johnson will enjoy himself. He has the American League’s longest winning streak this season (6), the league’s most strikeouts (82 in 59 innings) and a 1.83 earned run average that is second only to Texas’ Kenny Rodgers of any starting pitcher in the league.

Notes

The Mariners have signed five 1995 draft picks, including three of the club’s top 10 picks, the club announced Monday.

Signed were fourth-round pick Duan Johnson, 19, shortstop from St. Paul’s High School in North Carolina; seventh-round pick Branden Nogowski, 19, a left-handed pitcher from Oregon’s Hood River High School; and 10th-round pick Ernest Tolbert, 19, an outfielder from Lincoln High in San Diego.

Also signed were 14th-round pick Chadwick Sheffer, 21, a University of Central Florida shortstop, and a 36th-round pick, left-handed pitcher Todd Niemeier, 22, of the University of Southern Indiana.The Mariners selected 77 players in the 1995 June draft.

Baltimore is 1-7 in games McDonald has started. … Seattle’s Mike Blowers went 0 for 4 to end a 10-game hitting streak. … Baltimore rookie Curtis Goodwin struck out on all four trips to the plate.