Jimenez Shuts Down Diamondbacks Again

Randy Johnson has found his nemesis in the NL. It’s Jose Jimenez.

The rookie followed up his June 25 no-hitter against Arizona and Johnson with a two-hitter in a 1-0 victory Monday for the Cardinals at St. Louis.

“Today was awesome,” Jimenez said.

Jimenez (5-8) retired the first 13 batters before Steve Finley doubled with one out in the fifth for Arizona’s first hit in 13 1/3 innings off him. The Diamondbacks’ only other hit was a single off Jimenez’s glove by Andy Fox to lead off the sixth.

“It was a beautiful thing to see,” Cardinal Manager Tony La Russa said. “If you go to a movie and see the way this thing plays out, rookie against Johnson, you say ‘Ah, that’s Hollywood.’ But it happened.”

Jimenez has a 7.09 earned-run average against the rest of the NL, but it stands at 0.00 against the NL West-contending Diamondbacks. The rookie right-hander struck out a career-high nine.

Johnson (9-6) gave up only four hits and struck out 12, giving him 200 on the year and 43 in his last three starts, all complete-game losses. He tied Dwight Gooden’s NL record set in 1984 for strikeouts over three starts.

Thomas Howard singled home Mark McGwire with two out in the fourth inning. Johnson did end the Cardinal rookie-record 25-game hitting streak of Joe McEwing, who was hitless in four at-bats and lined out with the bases loaded to end the seventh.

Chicago 5, Pittsburgh 2--Henry Rodriguez homered and drove in three runs and the Cubs benefited from some terrible Pirate infield play on a brutally hot day to win at Pittsburgh.

Rodriguez had a sacrifice fly in the first inning after the first two of Pittsburgh’s four infield errors, an RBI double in a two-run fourth that included another error and a solo homer in the fifth.

After the Cub staff was shelled for 41 runs in three games over the weekend, Jon Lieber gave up two runs in 5 1/3 innings as the Cubs ended a four-game skid.

New York 2, Montreal 1--Brian McRae pushed home the go-ahead run with a double-play grounder in the eighth inning at New York.

New York, which will send Orel Hershiser to the mound today on only two days’ rest, has won 20 of its last 28, including 10 of 13 at home.

Even though it was a night game, Shea Stadium was like a steam bath, with the temperature at 100 when the first pitch was thrown at 7:42 p.m. EDT.

San Francisco 4, San Diego 1--Russ Ortiz threw a six-hitter for his second complete game and also had two RBI singles as the Giants defeated the Padres at San Diego for their seventh victory in eight games.

Ortiz (10-5), who leads the Giant staff in victories in only his second season, struck out a career-high 10 and walked two.

He has won two consecutive starts since the worst outing of his career, when he lasted only 1 2/3 innings against Milwaukee.

Ortiz hit an RBI single in the third for the Giants’ first run and another in the ninth, making him seven for nine with three RBIs in his last four starts.

Atlanta 6, Florida 5--Gerald Williams’ bases-loaded single in the ninth inning at Atlanta gave the Braves their 14th victory in their last at-bat.

Bret Boone, who homered in the seventh to give the Braves a 5-4 lead, singled with one out in the ninth off Antonio Alfonseca (4-5). Walks to Chipper Jones and Brian Jordan loaded the bases for Williams.

Cincinnati 5, Houston 2--Ron Villone threw 100 pitches in wilting conditions as the Reds won at Cincinnati.

Villone (4-2), despite having a 21-scoreless inning streak broken, gave up six hits in seven innings and even had a base hit of his own as the Reds moved back into sole possession of first place in the Central Division.

A thermometer placed in the sun on the artificial turf a few minutes before the first pitch registered 154 degrees, four degrees higher than Sunday.

Villone has won his last three starts, a streak that started when he went to the Astrodome and gave up only one hit over seven scoreless innings.