Johnson Strikes Out 16 Brewers

Randy Johnson struck out 16 in 62/3 innings and became a 20-game winner for the second time as the Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the Milwaukee Brewers, 13-11, Thursday night at Phoenix.

Johnson (20-6), who gave up five runs, seven hits and two walks, tied the major league mark he already shared with Nolan Ryan with his 23rd double-digit strikeout game of the season. Johnson has done it each of the last three years.

He has 366 strikeouts, 17 shy of Nolan Ryan’s record set in 1983. Johnson is scheduled to start two more games, but probably would not pitch in the regular-season finale at Milwaukee if Arizona already has clinched the division title.

Milwaukee rallied from a 10-1 deficit against Arizona’s shaky bullpen. Jeromy Burnitz hit his fifth homer of the series, a two-run shot off Byung-Hyun Kim in the ninth, to cut it to 13-11, then James Mouton walked to bring the tying run to the plate. Elvis Pena grounded out to shortstop, finally ending the game.

The Diamondbacks extended their lead in the National League West over idle San Francisco to two games with nine to play. The Dodgers trail by five games.

Houston 6, Chicago 5--Sammy Sosa carried a small American flag as he rounded the bases after his 59th home run but he wasn’t enough to carry the fading Cubs, who lost to the Astros at Chicago.

In the first game at Wrigley Field since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Shane Reynolds improved to 5-0 against the Cubs this season and Vinny Castilla hit a three-run homer for the first-place Astros.

Houston increased its lead in the National League Central to four games over idle St. Louis and to nine games over the third-place Cubs.

New York 12, Montreal 6--Desi Relaford hit a go-ahead home run in the eighth inning and an RBI double during a five-run ninth as the Mets rallied to defeat the Expos at Montreal.

Pinch-hitter Mike Piazza lined a three-run double in the ninth as the Mets won for the eighth time in nine games and pulled within three games of first-place Atlanta in the NL East.

Florida 7, Atlanta 1--Greg Maddux (17-10) fell behind, 4-1, in the first three innings at Miami, giving him three consecutive losing decisions for the first time since July 22 to Aug. 2 last year.

Cincinnati 2, Philadelphia 1--Lance Davis (8-3) pitched two-hit ball over six innings and Corky Miller stole home on a pickoff attempt at first by Omar Daal (12-7) as the Phillies missed a chance to tie Atlanta with a loss at Philadelphia.

Colorado 13, San Diego 9--Phil Nevin homered twice and drove in a career-high seven runs, but the Rockies overcame an 8-0 deficit with a nine-run third that included Todd Helton’s 46th homer, a three-run shot at Denver. Todd Belitz (1-1) pitched two scoreless innings.

After four months of negotiations, pitcher Josh Karp from UCLA signed a major-league contract with the Montreal Expos, receiving a $2.65 million signing bonus.

Karp, taken sixth overall in last June’s amateur draft, has been invited to the Expos’ major-league camp next spring.