Johnson Proud of Company He’s Keeping

Randy Johnson likes to downplay his statistics. He will make an exception for the strikeout milestone he reached Thursday in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ 3-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs.

The Big Unit struck out 11 to move into 10th place on the all-time strikeout list with 3,199, seven more than Ferguson Jenkins.

“The company I’m in, you can’t say enough about--some of the greatest power pitchers and some of the greatest strikeout pitchers in all of baseball,” Johnson said. “It’s a proud moment to be there.”

The strikeout that moved him past Jenkins was a controversial one. The pitch hit Rondell White in the leg, but he appeared to swing at it and catcher Damian Miller threw the ball to first baseman Erubiel Durazo for the out.

The umpires ruled it a strikeout, and Durazo threw the ball into the stands.

“I don’t know if he knew the significance of that,” Johnson said with a laugh. “I said, ‘You’ve got to get that ball back,’ and I got it back.”

Johnson (8-4) shut out the Cubs for seven innings, then left after walking Eric Young and giving up a single to Miguel Cairo to start the eighth. When he reached the dugout, Johnson slammed his fist into the bullpen telephone in disgust.

Reliever Byung Hyun-Kim got Sammy Sosa to fly out to deep center, then Ron Coomer grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Johnson said he was upset with himself.

“I wanted to finish the inning and I never like to put my bullpen in a situation where it’s any more difficult for them than it has to be,” Johnson said. “B.K. did a tremendous job to get out of the inning.”

Gary Matthews Jr. hit a two-run homer against Bret Prinz in the ninth. Left-hander Greg Swindell got two outs for his second save.

Johnson, 9-0 in 10 starts against the Cubs, has won three decisions in a row and has given up only 14 earned runs in his last 11 starts.

“We had three opportunities,” Cub Manager Don Baylor said. “Randy just finds a way to step it up.”