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Duke outduels shaky Johnson

Jun 9, 2008 - 11:24 PM By Chris Adamski PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- The Pittsburgh Pirates found a way to get to future Hall of Famer Randy Johnson - psychologically, if not by way of hard hits.

Despite not collecting an extra-base hit and rarely getting the ball out of the infield, the Pirates scored five runs off Johnson, which was more than enough for starter Zach Duke in a 5-3 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday afternoon.

Duke (4-4) was solid in six-plus innings and Luis Rivas had two hits and two RBI as the Pirates won a peculiar finale to the four-game series. Duke allowed two runs, five hits and two walks with five strikeouts.

Pittsburgh has won five of his past seven starts.

"It was weird. It was a very strange game - definitely out of the ordinary," Duke said. "But a win is a win. We'll take it."

For the second consecutive day, Matt Capps worked the ninth for the save - his 15th in as many chances.

Mark Reynolds hit his third home run in two days - and appeared to have another that was taken away. That play was only one of a series of strange idiosyncrasies during the contest, which included an ejection, a bench-clearing incident, a handful of arguments with umpires and three errors by Arizona.

The initial controversy took place in the second inning, when Reynolds originally was thought to have hit yet another home run after belting a shot to right field. But a young fan had used his glove to reach over the railing atop the 21-foot-high wall and caught the ball.

The play was ruled a home run, but after Pirates manager John Russell came out to argue, the umpiring crew conferred for several minutes and changed the play to a double. Accompanied by Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin, Reynolds emerged from the dugout to dispute the ruling.

After a lengthy discussion, Melvin was ejected by plate umpire and crew chief Jeff Kellogg. Arizona failed to score during the inning.

"My opinion was that the closest guy to it (first base umpire Rob Drake) by a considerable margin should make the call," Melvin said. "It's a difficult call for those umpires."

"I think they got the call right," Russell said. "Obviously, it saved us a run."

The bottom of the third brought even more controversy. After taking a pitch that was well inside, leadoff batter Doug Mientkiewicz took his time getting back into the batter's box and then asked for a timeout, which was granted by Kellogg.

After Mientkiewicz did so again, the swift-working Johnson became agitated, and the two shared words.

"When a pitcher gets started, it's hard for him to stop - I understand that," Mientkiewicz said. "But I wasn't trying to get anybody hurt. I don't get many at-bats these days, and I just want to be ready when I get one."

Ultimately, Johnson charged toward the plate and Mientkiewicz headed back at him. The benches and bullpens cleared, although no punches were thrown and no ejections were handed out.

"I don't know what was really going on at home plate," Johnson said. "He stepped out the first time, which is no problem. And then he said something to (catcher Miguel Montero) when he stepped back in, and then he looked at me and stepped out again. I'm not really sure what was going on there with the whole thing."

Johnson appeared rattled, walking Mientkiewicz and committing a throwing error on a comebacker by Jose Bautista. When Montero botched a sacrifice attempt by Duke for an error to load the bases, Johnson walked Rivas on five pitches to force in the game's first run.

But Johnson then settled down and retired the next three hitters to leave the bases loaded. He denied the incident with Mientkiewicz had an effect on him.

"It didn't bother me at all," he said. "If it would have, he probably would be in a stretcher, and I probably would be out of the game."

Reynolds' actual homer, his 14th, came in the fourth, but Pittsburgh regained the lead in the bottom of the inning on a sacrifice fly by Bautista.

The Pirates made it 3-1 in the fifth, when Xavier Nady's single plated Jack Wilson. They added two more runs an inning later on RBI singles by Rivas and Wilson.

Johnson (4-3) allowed five runs - four earned - six hits and five walks with three strikeouts. He fell to 1-3 lifetime at PNC Park.

Stephen Drew led off the eighth against Damaso Marte with his first homer since May 23, and Tyler Yates came one with one out to load the bases. But Montero struck out for the fourth time to end the inning.