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| October 18, 2001 | Thursday | Rajab 30, 1422 |
Diamondbacks draw first blood
PHOENIX (Arizona), Oct 17: Randy Johnson finally ended his major league record postseason losing streak as the Arizona Diamondbacks took Game One of the National League Championship Series with a 2-0 blanking of the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday.
Johnson, who had lost seven consecutive postseason decisions dating back to 1995, was practically untouchable through eight innings and got out of a ninth-inning jam to complete a three-hit shutout.
The left-handed fireballer won a battle of multiple Cy Young Award winners with Atlanta’s Greg Maddux.
He allowed an infield hit to Chipper Jones in the first inning and then tied a League Championship Series record by pitching seven consecutive hitless innings.
The only other Brave to reach base prior to the ninth inning was Bernard Gilkey, who walked in the eighth, ending Johnson’s string of 20 consecutive batters retired.
The Diamondbacks, coming off a first-round win over the Cleveland Indians in the fifth and deciding game of that series, got single runs in the first and fifth innings with Craig Counsell scoring both.
In the first, Reggie Sanders drove in Counsell with a single to center.
Counsell smacked a two-out double to deep left center off Maddux in the fifth and scored on a single to right by Luis Gonzalez.
Johnson, who finished with 11 strikeouts, continued to mow down Atlanta hitters until the tense ninth inning when the old jinx looked like it might rear its ugly head.
After getting the first two outs, “the Big Unit” twice got within one strike of ending the game only to surrender hits.—Reuters
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