PHOENIX (Arizona), Oct 29: Randy Johnson threw a three-hit shutout and Matt Williams belted a three-run homer as the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the three-time defending champion New York Yankees 4-0 Sunday to claim a 2-0 World Series lead.

The Diamondbacks, in their first Fall Classic in just their fourth year of existence, head to New York for Games Three, Four and, if needed, Five of the best-of-seven series Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at Yankee Stadium.

Johnson, the left hand in the game’s most lethal one-two pitching combination with right-handed Game One winner Curt Schilling, struck out 11, did not allow a hit until the fifth inning and faced just three more batters than the minimum.

The 6-foot-10-inch (2.08 metres) “Big Unit” walked only one batter, throwing an efficient 76 of his 110 pitches for strikes.

Yankee left-hander Andy Pettitte was almost as good, giving up only three hits and one run until the eighth, when he struck a batter with a pitch, got hit by a batted ball for an infield single and yielded the Williams blast.

The Arizona third baseman became the first man to hit World Series home runs for three different teams (San Francisco, 1989; Cleveland, 1997) but, like all but one of his fellow Diamondbacks, does not have a World Series ring.

Pettitte went seven innings, yielding all four runs on five hits with eight strikeouts. He did not walk a batter, throwing only 16 balls in his 80 pitches.—Reuters