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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2017
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Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
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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.