It’s been nearly a month since he started a game and a lot longer than that since he’s won a game, but Jason Hammel, a 2000 graduate of South Kitsap, will start Game 1 of the American League Divisional Series against the New York Yankees on Sunday. Here’s the Baltimore Sun story about manager Buck Showalter’s choice.Hammel was Baltimore’s best pitcher during the first half of the season and has been battling a knee injury the last three months.
Hammel has made one career postseason start, in 2009 for the Colorado Rockies
Sunday’s game starts at 3:15 p.m. and will be televised by TBS.
The only other pitcher from Kitsap County to start an MLB postseason game? Aaron Sele, the former North Kitsap star. Sele was 0-6 as a stater in the postseason with four of the losses coming while he was with the Mariners. Five of those loses were against the Yankees, two when he was with Texas and four times while he was with the Mariners.
Daly’s meltdown
Did you see that John Daly was up to his old tricks on the PGA Tour? Daly opened the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open with a 69-63. Saturday he was 6-over after 3 holes and finished with a 15-over 86. Yep, from 63 to 86 in a day and he finished with two pars and a birdie on his final three holes. It’s not his highest score on tour. That would the 89 he shot in the second round of the 2008 British Open. Yeah, I know. a lot of us would take a 86 or 89 on a regular basis, but when Daly has meltdowns like this, it’s news. Especially when it happens in Las Vegas.
Kitsap’s local pro, Troy Kelly, shot his second straight 1-under 70, which moved him from a tie for 61st to a tie for 41st heading into the final day.
Quick hits
Just look over at the TV in time to see Keith Price throw a pick that an Oregon player took to the house for a touchdown. Since Week 1, Kieth Price hasn’t looked like the same player that quarterbacked the Huskies a year ago. He’s still got three quarters to go and he never seems rattled. Let’s see how he bounces back.
Was having a discussion earlier in the week about Pac-12 football. Two guys were trying to convince me that the Pac-12 was the second-best football conference in the country behind the SEC. They argued that the Pac-12 was better than the Big 10 and Big 12. The Pac-12 had five teams in the Top 25, but I just didn’t see a lot of quality. Oregon and USC are legit. UCLA? Oregon State? Washington? C’mon. I see a bright, bright future for the conference on the west coast, but it’s not there just yet.
Who would have ever thought that the NFL West would be the league’s version of the Black and Blue division. The Seahawks, Cardinals, 49ers and Rams are all playing some seriously nasty defensive football? Or do those defenses just seem better because all of those teams, with the exception of the 49ers, have some really bad offenses and they’ve all played at least two of their conference foes. And the 49ers offense seems to have regressed this year.
Who do I think will wind up in the World Series? Nationals and Orioles.
Who do I want to get to the World Series? Giants and A’s. Giants for personal reasons, which has something to do with a buddy of mine making an unintentional wager on the Giants. We made fun of him at the time, but it just might turn out.
