As if the Arizona Diamondbacks need any help so far this year, they get some in the form of a future Hall of Famer on Monday night.
Randy Johnson will make his season debut for the Diamondbacks when they start a three-game road series against the San Francisco Giants; Arizona is a -133 money line betting favorite (over/under 8 runs) at WagerWeb.com.
Arizona has baseball's best record at 9-3. The "Big Unit" was expected to be the team's No. 3 starter but hasn't started a regular season game since June 28. The left-hander was 4-3 with a 3.81 ERA in 10 starts last season in the first year of his second stint with the Diamondbacks before back problems sidelined him for the final three months.
Johnson, 44, has recovered from his second back surgery in as many years and has gained strength and confidence after his last rehab outing at Triple-A Tucson, when he pitched six innings and worked his pitch count to 85.
Pitching against Salt Lake City, Johnson allowed three runs and three hits. He walked one, had two wild pitches and threw 85 pitches, 58 for strikes.
"The more you throw the better you start feeling," said Johnson, who retired his last eight hitters. "I knew I had to pitch better. There were a lot less mistakes. There were mistakes still made like the three hits. All of them were mistake pitches and that's going to happen in the course of a real game."
Arizona manager Bob Melvin said Johnson will not be on a pitch count. Johnson has not pitched at AT&T Park since 2004, and he's 2-2 with a 2.88 ERA in five starts there."I can only go by what we saw last year," said the Giants' Rich Aurilia, who has a career .340 averages against Johnson, who faced the Giants twice and allowed four earned runs over 12 innings in two Diamondbacks wins. "We know he is going to be out to compete like he always has. We have to prepare for his best and not be caught sleeping against him. But I don't think any of us has an idea how he's going to throw.
"Is he going to throw 96, 97 miles an hour like he did a few years ago? I don't think so. But he still knows how to pitch and he still finds way to get hitters out. Our job is to pay attention early to see what he has."
Johnson conveniently slid right into the rotation for Doug Davis, who had thyroid cancer surgery on Thursday.
"With Doug down, I think the timing is pretty good for [Johnson] coming back," Melvin said. "His last outing was encouraging for him. He felt the best he had felt. He got his six innings in, he got his pitch count in, the strikeouts were up a little bit and he was a little bit better with his slider."
The Giants expect to have Aaron Rowand back in the lineup after the outfielder sat out Sunday due to sore ribs. Rowand is 4-for-13 (.308) with five strikeouts against Johnson.
Jonathan Sanchez (0-1, 6.30) makes his third start for San Francisco. After he was rocked for seven runs in his first outing, he was excellent in his first home outing of 2008, allowing three hits over six-plus innings of a 1-0 win over San Diego on Wednesday.
The left-hander has lost all three of his career starts against Arizona, posting an 8.10 ERA in those games.
Arizona went 10-8 against San Francisco in 2007, but just 3-6 at AT&T Park. The D-backs will also get their first taste of what life is like at AT&T Park without all-time home run leader Barry Bonds, the Giants' left fielder since 1993.
Incidentally, Arizona is making the game available free at dbacks.com.
Betting trends: Arizona is in last 8 games on grass. ... Arizona is 4-9 in its last 13 Monday games. ... SF is 5-12 in its last 17 overall. ... Over is 7-3 in Giants' last 10 home games. ... Under is 13-5-3 in the last 21 meetings.
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