Johnson Boggles The Mind

The radar gun can’t pick it up.

The pitch count doesn’t reflect it in any way.

But there’s a weapon Randy Johnson is using against batters during this current streak of almost frightening domination.

“I remember when I came up against Randy and he was learning to pitch,” recalled Colorado DH Dante Bichette. “He was tall and he threw hard and he had good stuff, but … he didn’t have this look in his eye.

“Now, he’s got this possessed look in his eye, intense, like he’s on some kind of mission.”

The mission, after back surgery last year, is to prove that he’s back.

But having pitched 33 scoreless innings in his last 34, with 51 strikeouts and eight hits in his last four starts, Johnson hasn’t merely presented an argument that he’s back, but that he’s even better.

“To compare this year to ‘95, I’m probably pitching better, statistically,” Johnson said after the Mariners’ 6-1 victory Friday.

And if batters sense that Johnson is on some kind of personal crusade, they’re right.

“I’m a different person this year than I was in ‘95,” Johnson said. “Everybody looks at ‘95 because it was statistically my best year, but it really isn’t the same. This off-season I worked really hard to get ready for this year. Mentally and physically it was a grind and it still is because I never feel great out there. But what you see is what you get, and I’m pleased with that.”

Batters aren’t quite as happy.

The Johnson look that sends Dante into batter’s purgatory might not be equivalent to those guys who bend spoons by staring at them, but it’s certainly enough to make a wooden bat go limp.

“I think he’s the most dominating pitcher in baseball as far as strikeouts are concerned,” Bichette said. “Which makes him, actually, the best in the game right now.”

Roger Clemens’ 11-1 record for Toronto is a notch better than Johnson’s 10-1 mark, but Johnson’s ERA of 2.34 is better than his mark from the Cy Young season of 1995.

And with 12 strikeouts against the Rockies in the Kingdome on Friday night, Johnson moved into fourth place for the most times striking out 10 or more batters in a game - behind only Nolan Ryan, Sandy Koufax and Steve Carlton.

Heavy company.

Yes, Johnson had some big numbers, and a Cy Young season, but I think it was mandatory that he bounce back from the back surgery and string together another couple big seasons if he had hopes of landing in Cooperstown.

At the very least, the start this year will earn him his fifth All-Star Game berth.

Friday, he once again coiled that right leg and balanced on his left like some giant blue-hatted heron before striding fiercely toward home plate. The ball not only zipped horizontally, but vertically, as well, leaving batters flailing at pitches anywhere between their shoe-tops and Adam’s apples.

“He’s like (former Astros pitcher) J.R. Richard, the ball is in their hand until they’re halfway to the plate,” said Colorado manager Don Baylor. “You’ve got to make a decision so early, you swing at almost anything.”

Baylor said he played with Clemens in Boston when he had 20 strikeouts in a game, and also recognized Ryan as an untouchable commodity. “But no left-hander (to match Johnson) comes to mind,” Baylor said.

Former Mariners star Alvin Davis was not surprised that Johnson was able to return so convincingly from back surgery.

“He’s a hard worker who wouldn’t be where he is now if he wasn’t,” said Davis, who added his opinion that only Ryan and Clemens rank with Johnson in terms of domination from the mound.

For three years, Davis had a locker just two down from Johnson. He saw the young pitcher’s speed and stuff, but occasionally counseled him on managing the weight of expectations.

“It’s tough to live up to everybody’s expectations and it takes maturity to learn how to deal with that,” Davis said. “He had the speed and the breaking ball, it was just a matter of bringing all his mechanics under control and getting control of that competitive spirit.”

Now, apparently, control is not a problem in any manner.

“He’s mixing his pitches and not only throwing well velocity-wise, but also with his location,” Mariners’ pitching coach Nardi Contreras said. “And when he’s doing that, he’s hard to beat. He’s been on a great roll.”

But Contreras sees something that goes beyond the speed, the location, and even the look in his eyes.

“He’s had a couple games this year when he hasn’t had his best stuff,” Contreras said, specifically recalling a 2-1 dogfight victory in Milwaukee. “But he’s fought through it. So it’s not just a matter of a great arm with great control and throwing it hard, but it’s also being a real pitcher.

“And that makes all the difference in the world.”