Big Unit's perfecto against Braves one to savor

Randy Johnson had plenty of magical games during his big league career, but only one was perfect.

Johnson was dominant that night at Turner Field. The closest the Braves came to reaching base was in the sixth inning, when D-backs shortstop Alex Cintron made a do-or-die play on Mike Hampton’s grounder.

There’s one thing you won’t see on the broadcast and wasn’t written about at the time.

It was the start of the seventh or eighth inning of the game and the D-backs held a tenuous 2-0 lead when then-manager Bob Brenly turned to his bench coach, Robin Yount.

“As a manager, you’re constantly trying to look ahead and prepare for what could happen,” Brenly said. “I mentioned to Robin that his pitch count was rising. And while pitch count wasn’t an issue with R.J., we’ve all seen it where a pitcher gives up a hit and then the game spins out of control. I wondered if we should get someone warming up at some point, just in case.”

Johnson racked up plenty of high-pitch count games during his career. He had thrown 160 in eight innings against the Rangers in 1992, but he was 40 years old in 2004 and 125 was his high that season.

Johnson was at 91 pitches through seven innings and had thrown 103 by the time the eighth ended on his way to a 117-pitch effort.

“If he sees someone warming up, he’s going to be pissed,” Yount told Brenly.

And the last thing the manager wanted to do at that point was disrupt the rhythm Johnson had going.

“I mean, we even briefly discussed whether we could have someone warm up in the tunnel behind the visiting bullpen or in the batting cage behind the dugout -- somewhere R.J. wouldn’t see,” Brenly said. “We weren’t thinking of taking him out when he had a perfect game. It was about having someone ready in case he lost it.”

But before they could discuss it further, Johnson mowed the Braves down 1-2-3 ,so they dropped it.

“We did have some relievers stretching in the back of the bullpen,” Brenly said. “But that was it. We weren’t going to do anything to mess with the game. We didn’t even take left fielder Luis Gonzalez out for defensive purposes, which we sometimes did in close games.”