Seattle’s Johnson makes return to mound

Seattle Mariners ace Randy Johnson returned to the mound Saturday night after missing his last four starts because of tendinitis in the middle finger of his pitching hand. Johnson worked six innings in Seattle’s 6-3 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays at the Kingdome.

Johnson had not pitched since Aug. 20, when he left a game against the Indians with what was first diagnosed as a blister. The 6-foot-10 left-hander, who was limited to a 75-pitch count, allowed one unearned run on one hit, with one walk and eight strikeouts against Toronto. Johnson finished with 77 pitches, which got him out of the sixth inning.

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The 33-year-old Johnson is 17-4 this season with 272 strikeouts and a 2.25 earned run average in 27 starts. He is trying to become Seattle’s first-ever 20-game winner.

De La Hoya whips Camacho

WBC welterweight champion Oscar Golden Boy De La Hoya retained his WBC welterweight title with a dominating unanimous decision victory over four-time world champion Hector Macho Camacho. De La Hoya was in control every round and delivered just the second knockdown in Camacho’s 17-year pro career.

The judges’ scores had De La Hoya in front 120-105, 120-106 and 118-108.

De La Hoya went on the attack from the start and constantly punished Camacho. Despite the pounding, Camacho managed to stay on his feet until the ninth round, when De La Hoya, on the attack again, delivered a flurry of rights and lefts and floored Camacho with a right uppercut. It was the first time Camacho went down since a 1988 bout when he was floored in the opening round but came back for a victory.

De La Hoya, who had made no secret of his desire to be the first boxer to knock Camacho out prior to the fight, said he didn’t mind settling for the dominating win.

He did suffer for the whole 12 rounds, he told TVKO in the ring immediately after the fight. My intentions were to put more pressure, but hey, I might have underestimated a little too much, but we got the win. We made him suffer all 12 rounds, and I’m very happy.

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The 24-year-old De La Hoya hiked his record to 26-0 with 21 knockouts. The 1992 Olympic champion from East Los Angeles has already claimed four world titles in his relatively short pro career and may be boxing’s most popular figure.

Camacho, who is 35, fell to 64-4-1 with 32 knockouts. He was coming off a fifth-round knockout that stopped Sugar Ray Leonard’s comeback bid in March.

O’Meara captures title in France

United States Ryder Cup team member Mark O’Meara carded a 2-under-par 69 Sunday to come away with a one-shot victory at the Trophee Lancome in Paris.

O’Meara, using this event as a Ryder Cup tune-up, posted four consecutive sub-70 rounds on his way to finishing at 13-under-par 271. It was the sixth international victory of his career, but his first since the 1994 Argentine Open. O’Meara also has 14 lifetime wins on the US PGA Tour, including two this year.

What made O’Meara’s win even more credible was the fact he outplayed the world’s No. 1 player in Greg Norman, who ended up in a tie for third place at 11-under with fellow Australian Peter O’Malley. The two Aussies had entered Sunday’s play with a one-shot lead over O’Meara. Second place went to Sweden’s Jarmo Sandelin, who closed with a 4-under 67 to finish at 12-under 272.

Patrik Sjoland, Sven Struver and Eduardo Romero finished five shots off the pace, while David Gilford, Lee Westwood and Paul Lawrie were next at 7-under.