For Johnson, Spring Training’s Just A Blur

Randy Johnson wants spring training to slow down so he can catch up and be ready for his regular-season debut.

He realizes practice time is running out.

“Of all the big-league camps I have been to since 1989, this is the one I need the most, and this is the one going the quickest,” the Mariners left-hander said Friday. “I am really pleased with the way things are going and I’m making improvements as I go.

“Trouble is, the season begins in 2-1/2 weeks.”

Manager Lou Piniella announced after Friday’s 12-5 win over the Anaheim Angels that left-hander Jeff Fassero will start the season opener April 1 against the New York Yankees, followed by lefty Jamie Moyer.

Johnson is scheduled to return to the rotation on April 4 when the Mariners open a series against the Boston Red Sox.

Slowed initially because of back surgery, Johnson ran into another obstacle Tuesday when one of his pitches hit San Francisco first baseman J.T. Snow in the wrist and face.

The incident forced Johnson out of the game after he had thrown 23 pitches. The premature departure ended any chance he had of starting on Opening Day.

“I usually have pitched 11 or 12 innings by now and I’ve only thrown three,” he said Friday. “I haven’t reached the pitch count I need or thrown enough innings to be ready for the season.”

Johnson had been scheduled to throw 50 to 55 pitches against the Giants. He will start today’s game against Milwaukee and again attempt to reach the 55-pitch level.

Boom, boom, boom

Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Jr. and Edgar Martinez hit consecutive home runs in a six-run seventh inning as the Mariners rallied to beat the Angels at Tempe, Ariz.

The Mariners, who trailed 5-2 entering the seventh, scored the game’s final 10 runs.

Rodriguez hit a full-count pitch off Angels left-hander Darrell May over the left-center field fence for a three-run homer with one out. Griffey and Martinez followed with homers before May struck out Jay Buhner.

Peace at last

Labor peace finally and officially has returned to baseball, four years, three months and seven days after owners reopened the old labor agreement.

Union head Donald Fehr and management negotiator Randy Levine signed the deal Friday, ending the most destructive of the sport’s eight work stoppages since 1972. A 232-day walkout wiped out the final 7 weeks of the 1994 season, the 1994 World Series and the first three weeks of the 1995 season.

The deal runs through the 2000 season, and players have the option to extend it for an additional year.

Fielder deadline nears

Cecil Fielder may get an extension from the New York Yankees, although it’s not exactly the kind he wants.

Fielder faces a midnight EST deadline for choosing whether to withdraw his trade demand or become a free agent and walk away from a $7.2 million salary.

Friday, the slugger’s agents and the Yankees moved close to working out a deal that would delay the decision until Tuesday.

Penalty for target practice

St. Louis Cardinals pitcher T.J. Mathews has been suspended for six games and fined $2,000 by National League president Len Coleman for intentionally hitting Bret Boone of the Cincinnati Reds with a pitch.

After Eddie Taubensee tied Wednesday’s exhibition game with a single, Mathews threw one pitch behind Bret Boone, then hit Boone on the hip with a pitch.

“I felt like hitting somebody, so I hit somebody,” Mathews said after the game.