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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 19, 2017)
10A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2017 CONTACT US FOLLOW US facebook.com/ DailyAstorianSports Gary Henley | Sports Reporter ghenley@dailyastorian.com SPORTS IN BRIEF Golfer aces 12,750-to-1 shot at Gearhart Golf Links Timbers’ Valeri among 13 added to MLS All-Star team The Daily Astorian Associated Press Thirteen players includ- ing Portland’s Diego Valeri and Toronto’s Jozy Altidore have been added to Major League Soc- cer’s All-Star team for the Aug. 2 game against Real Madrid in Chicago. Two commissioner’s picks and 11 players named by All- Star coach Veljko Paunovic were added Tuesday to the fan selec- tions to represent the league at the game at Soldier Field. MLS Commissioner Don Gar- ber selected Kellyn Acosta of FC Dallas and Dom Dwyer of Sport- ing Kansas City. Among the other play- ers selected by Paunovic were Seattle goalkeeper Stefan Frei, Fire midfielder Dax McCarty and Gal- axy defender Jelle Van Damme. Submitted Photo Leslie Johnston of Vancou- ver, Wash., following her hole- in-one on the fourth hole at Gearhart Golf Links. GEARHART — The odds of a non-professional golfer making a hole-in-one on a par 3 have been cal- culated at 12,750 to 1. That didn’t stop Leslie Johnston of Vancouver, Wash., from sinking her tee shot on the fourth hole, a 164- yard par3, at Gearhart Golf Links last week. The ace on July 12 at Gearhart was the first hole-in-one for John- ston, who has been playing golf for the past eight years. “I hit a hybrid club,” Johnston said. “It rolled up on the green, mov- ing from left to right. I couldn’t see it go in, but I thought I heard a clunk. I said to my husband, Bob, ‘Oh, my goodness. I think it went in.’” As Johnston approached the green, she couldn’t see the ball any- where on the green and, increasing Gattis homers twice to lead Astros over Mariners By KRISTIE RIEKEN Associated Press AP Photo/Frank Franklin II New Jersey Gov. Chris Chris- tie watches during the fourth inning of a baseball game be- tween the New York Mets and the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday in New York. NJ gov Christie catches ball at Mets game, gets booed Associated Press NEW YORK — Fans at the Cardinals-Mets game cheered when a man neatly caught a foul ball at Citi Field — until they real- ized it was Chris Christie. The New Jersey governor then got loudly booed Tuesday night. The ovation quickly turned sour after Christie stood up and slapped hands with another fan. No matter that Christie gave the souvenir to a kid. Christie was sitting in the third row, near the New York dugout. In the third inning, St. Louis rookie Paul DeJong lifted a high foul that bounced in the stands, and Chris- tie reached out with his left hand and snagged it. The embattled Republican recently tried out for a spot on popular sports talk radio station WFAN in New York. AP Photo/Eric Christian Smith Houston Astros’ Evan Gattis hits a solo home run off Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Sam Gaviglio during the sixth inning of a baseball game Tuesday in Houston. All-Star game sees bump in TV viewers Associated Press AP Photo/Eric Christian Smith LOS ANGELES — Baseball’s breezier All-Star game scored a turn-around in viewership from last year’s record low. The game drew 9.3 million viewers to rank as the last week’s No. 2 program, the Nielsen com- pany said Tuesday. That compares to 8.7 million for 2016’s game. HBO fielded the other big standout: The season seven pre- miere of “Game of Thrones” drew 10.1 million viewers, zoom- ing past the previous bests in the 8-million range for other top-rated GOT episodes. The American League 2-1 vic- tory at Miami was the first exhi- bition game in 15 years, with no World Series home-field advan- tage on the line. That gave Fox’s broadcast room to play around, including interviews with players on the field. The game also boasted hefty star power of teams from TV’s biggest markets, with the New York Yankees’ five players includ- ing rookie sensation Aaron Judge. her pace, she was the first to arrive at the pin. After gazing into the cup, she looked up and, with a voice filled with amazement and happiness, yelled to her husband, “The ball is in the cup!” The happy couple took a break after nine holes and, when last seen, Bob was talking on the phone about the accomplishment and Johnston still had that “I can’t believe I did that” look on her face. Seattle Mariners’ Guillermo Heredia, right, reacts to a called strike by home plate um- pire Dan Bellino during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros on Tuesday in Houston. Houston Astros beat the Seattle Mariners in the 6-2 win. HOUSTON — The Houston Astros will have to make some decisions about their rotation soon with ace Dallas Keuchel near- ing a return from the disabled list. The way Brad Peacock has been pitching lately, he’s going to make those decisions much more difficult. Evan Gattis homered twice to back up a solid start by Peacock and help the Astros to a 6-2 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night. Peacock (8-1) allowed three hits and one run while fanning nine in seven innings to tie the longest start of his career and earn his fifth straight win. Afterward, manager A.J. Hinch was asked where Peacock fit in when Keuchel returns. “Competition is a good thing … there’s a conversation as to where to best utilize our weapons,” Hinch said. “Whether it’s in the rotation or in the bullpen, he’s been effec- tive in both. We haven’t even broached that conversation.” Peacock isn’t too concerned about what role he’ll play when Keuchel is healthy. He’s just glad to be pitching so well. “Yeah, I’m not worried about it. I’m just happy to be here,” he said. “Happy to have a job here on a first-place team, pitch- ing on a first-place team. That’s all you can ask for.” Seattle manager Scott Servais raved about Peacock’s performance. “He was ahead in the count, he was at the bottom of the strike zone, he was on the edges,” Servais said. “We didn’t get a whole lot of really good pitches to hit.” Gattis hit solo shots in the second and sixth innings off Sam Gaviglio (3-5) for the eighth multihomer game of his career. Luke Gregerson got the last four outs for his first save. Jose Altuve had three hits and drove in a run for the AL West-leading Astros, and Marwin Gonzalez added a hit in his first game at shortstop since All-Star Carlos Cor- rea was placed on the disabled list with a torn thumb ligament on Tuesday. Gaviglio allowed eight hits and five runs in six innings after being recalled from Tri- ple-A Tacoma on Tuesday. Houston took a 1-0 lead on a sacrifice fly by Yuli Gurriel in the first inning. Leading by two after Gattis’ first homer, Gonzalez singled to start Houston’s fourth and advanced to second on an error by Gavi- glio with one out. A double by Nori Aoki came next to score Gonzalez, and a two-out RBI double by George Springer extended the lead to 4-0. Peacock retired 12 of the first 13 batters he faced before Kyle Seager led off the fifth with his 200th career double. He advanced to third on a groundout by Danny Valencia and the Mariners cut the lead to 4-1 on an RBI single by Jarrod Dyson. Vermont’s governor is also one of its top stock car racers By WILSON RING Associated Press BARRE, Vt. — Gov. Phil Scott ducks into a trailer, trades his busi- ness suit for a racing jumpsuit, climbs into his modified Chevrolet and heads for Thunder Road. When his security detail drives him into the pits at the banked, quar- ter-mile track, he is no longer Phil Scott, the chief executive of Ver- mont. He is Phil Scott, long one of the state’s most popular stock car racers. “It’s something that’s in my blood, something I’ve done for three or four decades,” Scott said one recent Thursday before the regular summer- time races at Thunder Road. Scott, 58, took office in January after six years as lieutenant governor and a decade as a state senator. “We knew Phil and worked with Phil before he was even a state sena- tor, never mind governor. To us, he’s still just Phil,” said Michael Strids- berg, the Thunder Road media direc- tor and handicapper. “Once he walks through those gates, to us he’s not the governor, he’s just Phil Scott, the race car driver. We treat him the same as every other race car driver in the pits.” Before Scott began stock car rac- ing, he raced motorcycles and snow- mobiles, turning to stock cars in his early 30s. He’s now in his 27th year of racing at Thunder Road, his 26th in the top late-model division. Over that time he has won three track champi- onships, most recently in 2002. Going into this season, Scott had won 29 feature races at Thunder Road, the most ever. On July 6, he won his 30th. Scott now spends most of his time on state business, but he doesn’t com- pletely separate his time at the track from his state job. In May, during a gubernatorial news conference at his Montpelier office, he made headlines by talking of spinning out in the 96th lap of a 100-lap Memorial Day feature at Thunder Road. During the news con- ference, he was asked if he was going too fast. He quipped, “I was in sec- ond, so I wasn’t going fast enough.” AP Photo/Wilson Ring Vermont Gov. Phil Scott waits to take his stock car out for a prac- tice run at the Thunder Road race track in Barre, Vt., where he won the evening’s 50-lap feature race, his 30th lifetime win. Scott spends most of his time working as governor, but he still tries to race whenever he can.
