ESPN.com - MLB Playoffs 2001 - Johnson as good as it gets in October

Sunday, October 28
Updated: October 29, 4:15 AM ET
 
Johnson as good as it gets in October

By Jim Caple
ESPN.com

PHOENIX -- Damian Miller acknowledges that most people don't have the slightest idea who he is. Bring up his name, he says, and the response is, "Who?"

But he has the greatest job in the country that does not involve photographing the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. He is the Arizona Diamondbacks' catcher and two to three days a week he gets to squat behind home plate, stick out his glove and catch precise 95-mile gas from Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling.

Big Stuff
The lines from Randy Johnson's four starts in this year's postseason:
Date Opp. IP R SO Dec.
10/10 St. L. 8 3 9 Loss
10/16 Atl. 9 0 11 Win
10/21 Atl. 7 2 8 Win
10/28 NYY 9 0 11 Win

"It certainly doesn't suck," he said ever so eloquently.

Saturday night in Game 1 of the World Series, Miller caught Schilling's dominating seven-inning, three-hit performance. Sunday night in Game 2, he caught Johnson's three-hit 4-0 shutout that silenced the Yankees, put the Diamondbacks two victories from a World Championship and left Arizona looking into whether it could obtain EPA clearance for a ticker tape parade through the Grand Canyon.

On second thought, perhaps Miller's job beats photographing the swimsuit issue. (Although, it still probably falls short of the lead spritzer in charge of spraying water on the models.)

What a performance. Johnson didn't allow a hit until the fifth inning Sunday. He struck out 11, including seven in the first three innings. He allowed six balls out of the infield. Only one runner reached scoring position. He threw his fastball and slider for strikes, got ahead in the count, jammed hitters, broke bats, hit the inside corner, zipped the ball at the knees and had the three-time reigning World Champions striking out more than a Trekkie at a Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority function.

He threw 110 pitches, which left manager Bob Brenly wondering whether he had ever thrown so few pitches in a complete game.

In other words, Johnson was about as good as a pitcher gets in October.

"I've seen him better," Miller said.

So, the Yankees have that to consider as well Monday while they search New York City for their missing mystique and aura.

Of course, they may not even get a chance to face Johnson again if they don't dig themselves out of their gaping 0-2 pothole.

"I don't know if anyone thought we'd be up 2-0, but we are," Schilling said.

Obviously, we've got a couple horses and we're going to ride them. We have a lot of confidence in Brian Anderson and the other pitchers we have, but if it comes down to it, we'll ride these horses and we won't feel bad about it.
Damian Miller, Diamondbacks catcher, on Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling

Actually, anyone who ever looked at a Diamondbacks roster this season not only figured that Schilling and Johnson could put Arizona up 2-0, but that they would have to do so for the Diamondbacks to win this series. For all their polite talk about their remaining pitchers, the Snakes are essentially a two-man rotation. After all, Game 3 starter Brian Anderson, for all his refreshing wit, was 4-9 with a 5.20 ERA and hasn't started a game in seven weeks.

The thing is, though, come the World Series, two great pitchers can be enough, particularly when they perform as well as Schilling and Johnson. The two held the Yankees to six hits, one run and allowed only one runner past second base this weekend.

"Obviously, we've got a couple horses and we're going to ride them," Miller said. "We have a lot of confidence in Brian Anderson and the other pitchers we have, but if it comes down to it, we'll ride these horses and we won't feel bad about it."

Johnson has been the game's most dominating left-hander for a decade and even though he turned 38 last month, he figures he's smarter, more experienced and even better now than he was five years ago when he was merely the best pitcher in the American League. He was 21-6 with a major league-best 2.49 ERA this season and struck out 301 more batters than he walked.

"He's a no-hitter waiting to happen," said third baseman Matt Williams, whose three-run homer in the seventh put the game away.

The man who once cordoned off his locker with police crime scene tape also has loosened up a bit as well. "Randy's still not real talkative, but he's not the mummy he was last year when I got here," Schilling said.

Miller said Johnson has been as loose before recent games as he's ever seen him, and that more importantly, he was calm on the mound as well Sunday. "When he's cool and collected he makes adjustments quicker," Miller said. "Instead of being so intense that he fights himself and suddenly gets behind 3-0, he adjusts."

Not that he had much to adjust to. The Yankees barely knew what hit them, striking out looking seven times. Early on, the Yankees took pitches to wear down Johnson and wound up behind in the count. Later they were more aggressive and that didn't work, either.

"I got ahead in the count early in the game and was able to throw what I wanted to," Johnson said. "And then later in the game, when I started getting some ground balls, they were swinging earlier in the count, and it was actually efficient for me because I got some double plays."

Shane Spencer put one good swing on Johnson in the fifth inning when the game was still close, 1-0. Jorge Posada led off the inning with the first hit against Johnson and Spencer hit a 2-0 slider back into the seats along the left-field line for a long foul ball. Johnson adjusted and came back to strike him out.

"Part of a pitcher's job is to analyze the approach of a hitter, whether he is cheating," Johnson said, referring to when batters simply guess on a certain pitch and hope for the best. "I just think Spencer was cheating a little bit on a breaking ball. And after that I just tried to mix it up enough."

Despite the 2-0 lead, the Diamondbacks weren't crowing Sunday and the Yankees aren't dead by any means. Not with the series returning to Yankee Stadium and Roger Clemens facing Anderson in Game 3.

But Schilling and Johnson could pitch three of the other four possible remaining games in this series. Neither pitcher taxed himself to the limit this weekend, so they both should be strong.

And if they are and if they pitch as well as they did this weekend, the Yankees just may need to send someone to the plate with a bat named Wonderboy to stand much of a chance.

Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com.






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