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  Friday, May 5 10:05pm ET
Johnson (7-0) sees ERA rise to ... 0.93
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME LOG

PHOENIX (AP) -- Randy Johnson got mad, but he didn't get even. He just won again.

Johnson made it seven victories in seven starts Friday night with a five-hitter as the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the San Diego Padres 5-3.

Randy Johnson
Johnson couldn't contain his emotions, especially after being hit by a Hitchcock pitch.
Johnson's temper flared when he was hit in his pitching elbow by Sterling Hitchcock's 1-2 pitch in the second inning. Johnson pointed his bat at Hitchcock, hollered at him and took a couple of steps toward the mound as both dugouts and bullpens emptied.

"I don't know what he said," Hitchcock said. "He didn't ask me over for dinner."

But calm was restored and, after a talk with catcher Damian Miller, Johnson resisted any temptation to retaliate.

"I just said, 'Listen to me here. Don't be stupid. We need you,' " Miller said. "I imagine he just got caught up in the emotion of it all. I'm sure that Sterling wasn't trying to hit him, but sometimes when you get hit like that, you think wrong."

Johnson said if the Padres were trying to rattle him, it didn't work.

"Taking me out of my game plan is a possibility," Johnson said. "But after talking to Damian, he got me back in there and I realized how important it is not to let something like that affect me and just go back out there and do my job."

Hitchcock said there was no way he was throwing at Johnson.

"Why would I hit him on purpose?" Hitchcock said. "I know he's a competitor, but I would think he would be smarter than that."

San Diego manager Bruce Bochy said Hitchcock would have been crazy to throw at Johnson in that situation.

"I don't think he's insane," Bochy said. "He was coming up second the next inning. He was trying to get guys out. He struggled. He was having enough trouble with the regular lineup. Randy Johnson has hit guys in the head but he wasn't trying to."

In the third inning, Johnson struck out Hitchcock on a 3-2 pitch.

The possibility of retaliation had to be lingering in the thoughts of the Padres' hitters, Arizona manager Buck Showalter said.

"I know as a hitter you don't like the idea of seven innings with that on your mind," Showalter said.

Johnson (7-0), the third pitcher in modern baseball history to win six games in April, kept it going in May and even extended his hitting streak to five games going 2-for-3 with and RBI single in the eighth.

Two of the Padres runs were unearned, leaving Johnson's ERA at 0.93. He struck out 11, all but one in the first five innings, and walked three.

Of the hits he allowed, three were bloopers into the outfield and another was an infield single. Ed Sprague hit a 428-foot leadoff homer in the ninth.

Arizona homered four times off Hitchcock, including leadoff drives in the first three innings by Hanley Frias, Miller and Greg Colbrunn.

Johnson didn't allow a hit through five innings. His call third strike against Eric Owens in the first was clocked at 100 mph.

Johnson has complete games in four of his starts and was an out short of another. He has struck out at least 10 six times.

For the season, Johnson has allowed six earned in 58 1/3 innings. He has struck out 74 and walked 13. But he is not getting caught up in wondering how long this can go on.

"I'm not even worried about that," he said. "I just go out there and do the best I can and you guys write whatever you want to write."

The four homers were the only hits allowed by in five innings by Hitchcock, who hit two batters.

San Diego got two runs in the sixth. Pinch-hitter Chris Gomez led off with a bloop single to center. After one out, consecutive errors by Frias at shortstop loaded the bases. Johnson walked Phil Nevin, forcing in a run, and Sprague's broken-bat single brought home another.

Bret Boone grounded into an inning-ending double play, with Bochy arguing the call at first.

Game notes
Most of the Phoenix Suns attended the game and sat behind the Arizona dugout. Rodney Rogers, winner of the NBA's Sixth Man Award, threw out the first ball, with Jason Kidd, Penny Hardaway and Cliff Robinson serving as catcher, batter and umpire, respectively. ... Arizona closer Matt Mantei was placed on the 15-day disabled list with weakness in his right shoulder. His roster spot was taken by RHP Vincente Padilla, recalled from Triple-A Tucson. ... Frias' homer was the third of his career and first as a right-handed batter. ... The Padres, who have had 11 players on the DL this season, activated OF Ruben Rivera and RHP Rodney Myers from the 15-day DL. They placed RHP Woody Williams (aneurysm in his right armpit) on the DL.

 


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