Johnson Mows Down Angels : Baseball: Seattle left-hander strikes out season-high 15 in 3-2 victory.

It hardly seemed fair, on paper or, as it turned out, on the field.

Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann, down to his last out, sent pinch-hitter Mark Dalesandro, batting .111 and seeing his first action since Monday, to face left-hander Randy Johnson.

The result was oh so predictable as Johnson struck out the overmatched Dalesandro, preserving a 3-2 Seattle victory Saturday night at the Kingdome.

It’s not fair to hang this loss on Dalesandro. Johnson struck out better, more experienced hitters just as easily and with more at stake.

Johnson struck out Rex Hudler and Chris Turner three times. He got Spike Owen and J.T. Snow twice.

By game’s end, Johnson (8-1) had a season-high 15 strikeouts and had given up five hits and two earned runs in a complete-game victory. He leads the major leagues with 127 strikeouts.

Edgar Martinez’s three-run homer off starter Chuck Finley in the sixth inning enabled the Mariners to overcome a 2-0 Angel lead.

Finley (5-6) was superb. Johnson was better.

“He’s the best left-hander I’ve ever faced,” Hudler said. “We were roommates [in the Montreal organization] in 1988, and he had no control and was really rough around the edges. I had no idea he’d become the best left-hander in baseball.

“We got two runs and I thought that was it the way Chuck was pitching. That’s not Chuck’s fault, that’s my fault. I’ll take the blame.”

In the end, the Angels could have used more than Hudler’s two-run double in the fifth. Snow had a leadoff double in the second, but was stranded. The Angels also had runners on second and third with no outs in the third.

But Johnson struck out Hudler and Owen, and then got Tim Salmon to ground out.

“To me, that was the game,” Lachemann said. “Martinez’s homer wasn’t the game. We should have done the things to score in the second and third just by making the right outs. Then again you’ve got to give credit to Johnson. He doesn’t let you make the right outs sometimes.”

Owen agreed with Lachemann.

“When you get him on the ropes, you’ve got to squeeze the runs across,” Owen said. “Some of that [failure in the second and third] is because we didn’t execute and some of that was because he pitched such a great game.”

Conventional wisdom says the best way to combat Johnson is by stacking your batting order with right-handed hitters.

So, left-handers Garret Anderson, Jim Edmonds and Jorge Fabregas took a seat Saturday and right-handers Hudler, Owen and Turner got a start. Edmonds has hit in 18 consecutive games, which shows how devoted Lachemann is to playing Johnson by the book.

Johnson has almost been unhittable facing left-handed hitters this season. In 13 starts before Saturday, lefties were batting .087 (2 for 23) with no home runs and 16 strikeouts.

Inserting Hudler in center field in place of Edmonds paid off for Lachemann in the fifth inning. Hudler had struck out twice already, looking off balance each time, when he came to bat with the bases loaded and one out.

In a similar situation, Hudler had struck out with the bases loaded against Johnson May 7 at Anaheim Stadium. Seattle went on to win that game, 3-2, as Johnson struck out nine and gave up six hits. Finley, who gave up seven hits but had seven strikeouts, was the loser.

This time, Hudler doubled down the left-field line, scoring two runs.

Any chance for more runs fizzled when Salmon grounded out and Snow struck out, ending the inning.

When Johnson struck out Turner for the third consecutive time to end the sixth, his strikeout total reached 10. It was the seventh time this season and the 57th in his career that he has recorded 10 or more strikeouts.

“When he’s throwing 98 m.p.h., you don’t have much time,” Hudler said of trying to lay off Johnson’s high fastballs. “What a pitcher. What a game.”