NL Wire Notes | Back surgery to end season for Big Unit

Randy Johnson will have season-ending back surgery next Friday and intends to be back for the Arizona Diamondbacks at spring training next year.

"I have no intention at this time of retiring," he said at a news conference Friday. "I surely don't want to end my career because I had surgery.

"I love pitching. It's what I've been doing since I was 7 years old."

It's the second year in a row that the Big Unit has needed surgery on his troublesome back. It will be the third back operation of his career.

"He tried to work his way through it," Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin said, "but it just didn't get any better."

The 43-year-old left-hander was traded to the Diamondbacks from the New York Yankees in the offseason, signing a $26 million, two-year contract with Arizona.

The five-time Cy Young Award winner made several strong starts for Arizona but struggled in his later outings, then he was diagnosed with a herniated disk.

He had surgery last October and started this season on the disabled list. Having an operation now, he said, will give him three more months to heal for next season.

Johnson has 288 wins and wants to reach 300 before he calls it quits. He ranks third in career strikeouts with 4,616, behind Roger Clemens (4,641) and Nolan Ryan (5,714).

Chicago: RHP pitcher Kerry Wood pitched one inning for Class A Peoria, retiring all three batters. The Cubs are converting him to a reliever.

Cincinnati: OF Adam Dunn went 0 for 4, snapping his 12-game hitting streak.

Colorado: The Rockies' game with the Dodgers was postponed and will be made up in Denver in September.

Houston: 2B Craig Biggio got his 3,020th hit, tying Rafael Palmeiro for 23rd on the career list.

Los Angeles: The Dodgers will host a steroid awareness clinic for Little Leaguers on Aug. 2, before they play Barry Bonds and the Giants.

Milwaukee: RHP Grant Balfour was traded to Tampa Bay for minor-league RHP Seth McClung.

New York: OF Carlos Beltran sat out his third straight game with a stomach-muscle strain.

Philadelphia: All-Star 2B Chase Utley had a pin inserted to stabilize his broken right ring finger and could play again in three weeks. 2B Tadahito Iguchi was obtained in a trade from the White Sox for a minor-league pitcher.

St. Louis: LHP Mike Maroth had another horrendous start and is 0-4 with a 9.20 ERA for the pitching-starved Cardinals.

San Diego: OF Scott Hairston, a .238 career hitter, was acquired from Arizona for a minor-league pitcher. ... C Michael Barrett dropped his appeal and served a one-game suspension stemming from his ejection July 22.

San Francisco: RHP Thomas King, released by the Giants in June and pitching for Augusta of the Class A South Atlantic League, was suspended for 50 games after testing positive for a drug of abuse.

Washington: LHP John Lannan, ejected from Thursday's game at Philadelphia after he hit 1B Ryan Howard with a pitch, is only the fifth player to be ejected from his first big-league game.

Seattle Times news services

Information in this article, originally published July 28, was corrected July 29. A previous version of this story contained an error. Arizona pitcher Randy Johnson ranks third in career strikeouts with 4,616, not 4,661 as reported by The Associated Press in Saturday's NL Beat notebook.