Grissom Getting Best of Johnson

Marquis Grissom is at a loss to explain his recent hot hitting against the most feared left-hander in the major leagues, Arizona’s Randy Johnson.

“I don’t know. I’m just a different hitter on those days, I guess,” said Grissom, who in his last two games against the Big Unit is three for five with three home runs and six runs batted in.

“I’m sticking to my strength and that’s just baseball,” added Grissom, who hit a three-run home run off Johnson Friday night. “You hit some guys well, some guys you don’t. Some days you see the ball better than others. Players change every day.

“I’m just finding myself, finding some inner peace with myself.”

Before his recent surge, Grissom was just trying to find a hit against Johnson, a spring training teammate with the Montreal Expos in the late 1980s.

Grissom had been one for 25 with 15 strikeouts against Johnson in his career.

“That’s why you throw the book out the window,” Grissom said.

“I know [Johnson] is one of the best so I’m not going to go out there and try to be as aggressive as he is because he’s already supplying the power. So I’m just trying to relax a little bit, see the ball, hit the ball. But there really [is] no reason [for the recent success against Johnson]. I just say it’s baseball.”

*

If the Dodgers could rewrite history, think they would have offered Johnson $105 million and a private jet in the winter of 1998?

Since then Johnson has gone 66-23, won three consecutive Cy Young awards and been named a World Series co-most valuable player, all without spending a day on the disabled list after signing with the Diamondbacks on Dec. 10, 1998.

Kevin Brown, who signed with the Dodgers for the aforementioned terms two days later--after Johnson spurned their $50 million-plus offer--has gone 43-22 and been on the disabled list six times, twice already this season.

TODAY

DODGERS’

KAZUHISA ISHII

(8-1, 2.90 ERA)

vs.

DIAMONDBACKS’

MIGUEL BATISTA

(2-2, 5.28 ERA)

Dodger Stadium, 1 p.m.

TV--Channel 13.

Radio--KXTA (1150), KWKW (1330).

Update--The left-handed Ishii will be making his first career appearance against the Diamondbacks, who have a lefty-dominated lineup. Left-handed hitters are batting only .160 against Ishii. Batista is 4-1 with a 3.08 earned-run average in 15 career games against the Dodgers and has a four-game winning streak against them. He is coming off the best outing of his career, giving up one hit in nine innings of a 1-0, 10-inning loss at San Francisco on Tuesday.

Tickets--(213) 224-1448.