Johnson hurls complete game in 6-1 win over Pirates
NEW YORK (AP) – After 21/2 months of struggles, Randy Johnson has found his groove. Johnson reached double digits in strikeouts for the first time this season and pitched a five-hitter Thursday night, leading the New York Yankees to a 6-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates that completed a three-game sweep.
With perhaps his sharpest slider of the season, Johnson dominated from the start, throwing his first 13 pitches for strikes and 20 of his opening 21. He went to 0-2 counts on 10 of his first 18 batters and finished with 11 strikeouts and no walks.
It was the 205th double-digit strikeout game of his career, 10 shy of Nolan Ryan’s record.
Winning consecutive starts for only the second time this year, Johnson (7-5) got his 253rd win, tying Carl Hubbell for 40th on the career list.
Johnson extended his scoreless streak to 10 innings before allowing Michael Restovich’s opposite-field homer in the fourth and pitched his third complete game of the year, his first on the winning side.
Johnson lost his previous three starts to the Pirates, getting a total of three runs of support. For the second consecutive start, he threw to John Flaherty, the Yankees’ backup catcher, instead of Jorge Posada.
“If you see something that works, don’t try to mess with it,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said before the game.
At 33-32, the Yankees are over .500 for the first time since they were 28-27 before losing at Minnesota on June 5.
Hideki Matsui hit a two-run homer in the first off Oliver Perez (5-5), and New York made it 4-0 in the second when Jason Giambi hit a long RBI double and scored on Robinson Cano’s single. Gary Sheffield added a bloop, two-run, ground-rule double in the fourth that bounced just in front of a sliding Restovich in left.
Perez, who was 4-0 in his previous five starts, gave up six runs, seven hits and five walks – one intentional – in five innings.
Pittsburgh lost its fourth straight overall and its ninth in a row at AL ballparks, dropping to 17-39 on the road in interleague play.
NOTES: Giambi, whose 10th-inning, two-run homer won Wednesday night’s game, was 1-for-2 with a walk and was hit by a pitch. … Sheffield was in a 4-for-35 slide before the double. … With Restovich’s homer, the Pirates remained the only major league team with an extra-base hit in every game this season.