Johnson Makes This One Count

Finally, Randy Johnson has his 16th victory, and he didn’t give the Arizona bullpen a chance to blow it.

The Diamondbacks overcame Sammy Sosa’s 42nd home run--his fourth in three games--and rallied from a four-run deficit Sunday at Phoenix to win their seventh consecutive game and complete a three-game sweep of the Chicago Cubs, 5-4.

Johnson (16-4), winless in his previous five starts, threw a four-hitter for his first victory since July 20. He is tied with Atlanta’s Tom Glavine for the National League lead in wins, and his seven complete games are tied with teammate Curt Schilling and Toronto’s David Wells for most in the majors.

“The last month I’ve been trying to pitch a game and I just haven’t pitched the type of game I would like to pitch,” Johnson said. “I gave up some runs and put us in a little bit of a hole and we came back. I needed to pitch a little bit better than I’ve been pitching and I was able to do that late in the game and make sure they didn’t get anything together. You make one bad pitch with guys on base and Sammy Sosa comes up, you pay the price.”

Johnson matched his season high with 13 strikeouts and it was the 19th time in 27 starts that he has reached double digits in strikeouts.

Philadelphia 6, St. Louis 0--Kent Bottenfield, pitching against his former team for the first time, threw a five-hitter for his first career shutout as the Phillies won at St. Louis.

Bottenfield (1-0), traded to the Angels in the Jim Edmonds deal in spring training, struck out five and walked four as Philadelphia ended its season-worst six-game losing streak.

An 18-game winner for the Cardinals last year, Bottenfield won for the first time in four starts since being traded from the Angels to the Phillies.

Pittsburgh 7, Cincinnati 3--Brian Giles drove in four runs with two doubles and a homer as the Pirates won at Cincinnati.

Giles’ two-run double in the fifth off Elmer Dessens (5-4) put the Pirates ahead to stay. Giles is on a 14-for-28 spurt that includes 10 extra-base hits.

Colorado 13, Florida 4--Todd Helton homered, drove in three runs and raised his batting average to .398 to lead the Rockies at Denver.

Helton, who was two for four on his 27th birthday, is 25 for 42 with four homers and 17 runs batted in in the last 12 games. He also hit his 48th double, tying the club record set by Dante Bichette in 1998.

Milwaukee 6, Houston 5--Henry Blanco doubled in the Rafael Belliard with the go-ahead run in the ninth inning at Houston as the Brewers ended the Astros’ six-game winning streak.

San Diego 5, Montreal 4--Jay Witasick hit two run-scoring singles--his first two big league hits and RBIs--to help himself to his first victory with the Padres at San Diego. Witasick (1-1) pitched 6 1/3 innings, giving up four runs, three earned, and 10 hits.