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MONTREAL (AP) -- Randy Johnson pitched a five-hitter to win his 17th game and
Steve Finley homered twice to lead the Arizona Diamondbacks to a
7-0 victory over the Montreal Expos on Wednesday night.
|  | | Steve Finley capped a four-run first against the Expos' Felipe Lira with a two-run homer. Finley added a solo homer in the fifth. |
Johnson (17-5), coming off his first no-strikeout game in 11
years, struck out 10 in his third shutout of the season and 28th of
his career.
"I felt like every time I got our offense back out there, we
were able to get a few more runs," Johnson said. "As a starting
pitcher, when you go out there and get runs, it's a lot easier to
go out there and feel like you can make a mistake, if it should be
made."
Johnson also pitched shutouts in a 1-0 win over Pittsburgh on
April 9 and a 6-0 win in Chicago on April 30.
"I knew we were in trouble after he threw the first fastball
tonight," Expos manager Felipe Alou said. "Some of the young guys
really struggled out there."
Finley hit a two-run homer off Felipe Lira (3-5) to cap a
four-run first. He added a solo homer in the fifth -- his 33rd -- for
his third two-homer game of the season, the 17th multihomer game of
his career.
"(Johnson) had a rough outing his last start," Finley said.
"He doesn't have too many of those a year, so he came back tonight
and redeemed himself and pitched a great ballgame."
Luis Gonzalez hit his career-best 27th homer leading off
the third to put Arizona ahead 5-0. Gonzalez hit 26 homers last
season.
Lira allowed seven hits and five runs in 2 1/3 innings as the
Expos lost for the 16th time in their last 20 games to finish a 2-4
homestand.
"I'm running out of explanations," Alou said.
The win was Johnson's first in five starts against Montreal, the
team he made his major league debut with in 1988.
"That's a very good team," Johnson said. "I've watched them
the last two nights. They're a team that kind of lays low. When you
score a few runs on them, they come right back and string some hits
together."
Johnson retired the first eight Expos he faced -- five on
strikeouts -- before reliever Mike Johnson lined a single to left
with two outs in the third.
"You give Randy Johnson one run in the first inning and you're
in trouble," Alou said. "We gave him four so the game was decided
in the first inning."
Damian Miller's sacrifice fly in the sixth drove in Arizona's
seventh run.
Game notes
Johnson has 2,981 career strikeouts. ... Finley's last
two-homer game was May 2 at Milwaukee. ... 3B Matt Williams,
1-for-20 on the Diamondbacks' current road trip, didn't start.
Craig Counsell started at third base. ... The Expos lineup featured
five switch-hitters, the third time Montreal has had that many
switch-hitters in their batting order this season. The Expos had
Wilton Guerrero batting leadoff, Milton Bradley batting second,
Jose Vidro hitting third, Geoff Blum in the fifth spot and Fernando
Seguignol batting sixth.
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AUDIO/VIDEO
 Randy Johnson says Arizona's offense picked him up on Wednesday.
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