Johnson Throws Book at Braves

Randy Johnson didn’t allow his bullpen to blow the lead for him this time.

The Arizona Diamondbacks’ $52.4-million star struck out 15 and pitched a six-hitter in an 8-3 victory over Tom Glavine and the Atlanta Braves.

“I got away with [mistakes] because the team scored a lot of runs,” Johnson said after leading the Diamondbacks to their first victory of the season. “I went against the book on a couple of guys and found out that the book was pretty much right on the hitters.”

Johnson (1-0) was headed to a win over the Dodgers and Kevin Brown on opening day, but Gregg Olson gave up a game-tying three-run homer to Raul Mondesi with two outs in the ninth.

This time Johnson got the 57th complete game and 103rd double-digit strikeout game of his career, throwing 83 of 123 pitches for strikes as the second-year Diamondbacks won for the first time in five games at Turner Field.

Johnson struck out a team-record six consecutive batters during one stretch starting in the fourth, and struck out at least one batter in every inning.

“You want to try and minimize the mistakes, and not knowing the hitters as well as I would like to, I’m probably going to make some mistakes,” he said.

Brian Hunter homered in his first at-bat against Johnson, then struck out in his next three.

“Randy found his pace after the second inning and obviously he was very good after that,” Diamondback Manager Bucky Showalter said.

“If you get three runs off Randy, you’ve done a good day’s work,” Brave Manager Bobby Cox said. “He was throwing harder and better as the game went on. If you’re going to face him, you’d better hold them to one or two runs.”

Glavine, who lost to Curt Schilling and the Philadelphia Phillies on opening day, dropped to 0-2 for the first time since 1990. Glavine, the 1998 Cy Young Award winner, gave up five runs and 10 hits in six innings, struck out none and walked one.

“When you give up that many runs, you’re not going to beat many people,” he said. “I’m not throwing the ball where I want to right now. I don’t care whether it’s Randy Johnson or Curt Schilling, you have to keep your mistakes to a minimum.”