Rich Harden needed to be nearly perfect to give his Cubs a chance to beat Randy Johnson.
He was, and it still wasn't good enough.
Harden allowed only a solo homer in seven innings, but Johnson gave up just two singles over the same span and improved to 13-0 in 14 career starts against Chicago with a 2-0 win for the host Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday night.
"That's as good a stuff as I've seen in a while," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said of Johnson. "I think there was a little extra amp today. ... To do what he did to that club that's No. 1 in the National League in offense is pretty special."
The 44-year-old left-hander, who entered the game with a 1.98 career ERA against Chicago, is the second pitcher to go at least 10-0 against the Cubs. The other was Sal Maglie, who was 10-0 in 19 starts against Chicago from 1954 to 1958.
Johnson (7-7), winning his third straight after six consecutive losses, struck out four and walked one for his 291st victory in a swift 2-hour, 18-minute game.
"There's no rhyme or reason to it," Johnson said of his domination of Chicago.
Harden (0-1) struck out 10 and walked two in the NL Central leader's fourth loss in five games.
"He was lights out," teammate Derrek Lee said. "It's a shame we can't win that game for him. You can't get much better than that."
In other NL games Monday, it was: Milwaukee 6, St. Louis 3, 10 innings; Atlanta 4, Florida 0; San Diego 6, Cincinnati 4; Pittsburgh 9, Houston 3, and L.A. Dodgers 16, Colorado 10.
Arizona made it 2-0 against reliever Bob Howry in the eighth when Stephen Drew tripled over the head of Mark DeRosa in right field, scoring Chris Snyder from first.
After watching his team score one run in two games and get shut out in another of its four since the All-Star break, Cubs manager Lou Piniella said there would be no batting practice Tuesday or Wednesday.
"We're going to come out here and stretch and play, that's it," he said. "I'm tired of seeing balls flying all over in batting practice and when the game starts seeing nothing. So we'll just go play and hopefully that will get it done."
