Stephen Strasburg knows a thing or two about pitching in San Diego County.

The Nationals right-hander was born in San Diego, played his high school ball at West Hills High in Santee and spent three seasons at San Diego State before being selected No. 1 overall in the 2009 First-Year Player Draft.

But, at the highest level, Strasburg has yet to pitch in his hometown. That will change Thursday night when he toes the rubber against the Padres in the first game of a four-game series at Petco Park.

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“It’s always good to be in your hometown. Everybody likes to do that,” Nats manager Davey Johnson said. “He is doing well, we just haven’t scored him many runs. If we score him some runs, then he will be fine.”

Strasburg was on his way to what might have been his best start of the season on Saturday. He struck out seven and gave up only one hit through four innings, and he needed just 53 pitches to get there.

But with two outs in the fifth inning, third baseman Ryan Zimmerman committed his sixth throwing error of the season, and Strasburg’s day completely unraveled. He threw 42 pitches and gave up four runs that inning, all of them unearned, spoiling what could have been a special start for the young Washington ace.

Opposite Strasburg will be right-hander Edinson Volquez and a Padres club that has won 13 of its last 19 games.

Volquez has been fighting to rebound from a shaky start to the season. His first three outings were disappointing, as he ran out to an 0-3 record and an 11.68 ERA. But he’s gone 3-0 with a 2.59 ERA over his last five starts dating back to April 19, and the Padres have gone 3-2 in those games.

San Diego’s most recent loss with Volquez on the mound was certainly not his fault. He threw six solid innings against the Rays on Friday, exiting in line for his fourth-straight win after allowing two earned runs on three hits in six innings with four walks and three strikeouts.

But the Padres lost, 6-3, as the Rays scored four runs in the seventh against San Diego’s bullpen. Volquez threw 100 pitches, 56 for strikes, in that outing.

“Volky hung in there … it was a little maddening in that he was behind in the count a lot,” Padres manager Bud Black said Friday. “They didn’t get many hits off him. They didn’t hit many balls hard off him.”

 

A determined Derek Jeter vowed to return to the field in 2013.

“No doubt,” Jeter said at a news conference Thursday at Yankee Stadium, where he addressed his latest setback from a fractured ankle. “When you have doubt, that is when you have trouble.”

Last week, Jeter was diagnosed with a small crack in his surgically repaired left ankle. He is currently wearing a walking boot to protect the ankle.

“I’ve been told this bone will heal,” Jeter said. “When it heals, I’ll be ready to go. It is frustrating that I can’t magically make it heal sooner than it is taking. But there is no doubt. I have no doubt.”

The Yankees have said they expect Jeter to return after the All-Star break. Jeter declined to put an exact date on when he expects to be back.

“I’m not getting into timelines. The last timeline I set, I didn’t make,” said Jeter, who seemed in very good spirits. “Whenever it heals, I’ll be back.”

Jeter, 38, originally fractured the ankle Oct. 13 while trying to field a ball in the 12th inning of Game 1 of the American League Championship Series. A week later, he underwent surgery for what was described as a dislocated ankle.

Following the operation, the Yankees and Jeter said they thought he could be ready by Opening Day. Although he didn’t start running until spring training had started, Jeter and the team hung on to the hope he would be ready by April 1.

Jeter appeared in spring training games but never played more than five innings and never in back-to-back games. Ultimately, two weeks into camp, he had to be shut down. When he finally returned to the field, the Yankees eventually cut back the amount of grounders he fielded to try to find the right formula for rehabbing the ankle.

Last week, with the ankle not improving, Jeter went to see Dr. Robert Anderson, who had performed the surgery. Anderson found the small crack in the bone but told Yankees general manager Brian Cashman “95 percent” of players return from such a condition.

“It has been a difficult process,” Jeter said. “It’s been a frustrating process. Just when you think you are close to coming back, you have a setback. I guess it is part of the healing process. When you get hurt, it is supposed to take time. It is supposed to take time when you break a bone. Unfortunately, it has taken more time than I anticipated.”

Jeter said he didn’t think he pushed the injury too hard, causing the setbacks. In 2012, Jeter led the majors with 216 hits. He is being replaced by Eduardo Nunez.

Nunez, who has been shaky on defense in his career, has performed well at short this season, making just two errors. At the plate, Nunez entered Thursday hitting just .184.

Jeter’s 3,304 hits are 11th all time, 11 behind Eddie Collins. Jeter is making $17 million this season. He has a player option for $9.5 million for 2014.

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Both Jeter and Yankees manager Joe Girardi expect the shortstop to be the same player when he returns.

“He hasn’t done anything in his career to make me believe that he is not going to be a good player when he comes back,” Girardi said. “I know it is nine months off, but players get four or five months off in the offseason, and they come back and they are fine. I don’t think the extra few months are necessarily going to hurt him. I don’t think he is going to forget how to hit or do all the things he needs to do.”

Jeter said he hasn’t regularly watched many Yankees games because he doesn’t have the Extra Innings package and the games on the YES Network are blacked out in Tampa, Fla.

Jeter, who turns 39 in late June, said he has never had a shred of doubt that he will return throughout the process.

“Eventually it will heal, so I’ve never had any doubt,” Jeter said.

When he does return, Jeter said he will not be offering constant updates about how his ankle feels. His all-time mantra is that either you are hurt or you are playing.

“I don’t talk about injuries,” Jeter said. “I think talking about injuries is just making an excuse for yourself. The only reason I’m talking about this today is because I’m not playing. So when I come back, I won’t talk about it again because you are either good enough to play or you are not. If you are good enough to play, then no one wants to hear about excuses. Hopefully, I don’t have to address this again. So when I start playing, please don’t ask me about it.”

Rafael Soriano has agreed to a two year, $28 million deal with the Washington Nationals; with a $14 option for 2015 if he finishes at least 120 games over the next two seasons.

The signing of a legitimate closer makes the Nationals again one of the favorites going into the 2013 season. USA sports betting is the way to go if you want to place a wager on the Nationals or any other team in 2013!

The amount of money makes Soriano the highest paid closer in baseball, but the Nationals also forfeit the 29th pick in the first round of the June draft.

Many thought the move to opt out of his $14 million deal with the Yankees would backfire on Soriano, but obviously he shut up any critics of that move.

For the second straight offseason the Angels emerged from the shadows to nab the free-agent market’s biggest offensive prize. On Thursday, they reportedly landed Josh Hamilton with a five-year, $125-million contract barely a year after signing Albert Pujols for nearly double that at 10 years and $240 million.

In neither case was the club rumored to have interest prior to the agreements. FoxSportsWest.com first reported that the Angels were seriously pursuing Hamilton less than two hours before it was completed, pending a physical.

As stealthily as the Angels have done their business, there’s nothing subtle or quiet about their intentions. This move is part retaliatory shot for the crosstown Dodgers signing starter Zack Greinke, the market’s top pitcher and an Angels target, five days ago; it was part damaging blow to the division-rival Rangers by swiping their best hitter; and it was part reaction to finishing in third place in the AL West and missing the playoffs last season. All told, the Angels have again acted boldly, further asserting themselves as a financial force to be reckoned with.

Los Angeles, which scored the fourth-most runs in the majors last year, now boasts the game’s most dynamic offense with centerfielder Mike Trout hitting leadoff (the AL MVP runner-up), Pujols (three-time NL MVP) and Hamilton (2010 AL MVP) batting 3-4 in one order or the other and rightfielder Mark Trumbo (2012 All-Star) presumably batting fifth, meaning four of the top five hitters in Los Angeles’ projected lineup all hit at least 30 home runs last year.

Hamilton’s $25 million average annual value is the highest in baseball history for an outfielder and tied for fourth-highest alltime regardless of position. Given his age (31), injury history (129-game average in his five-year Texas tenure) and off-field issues (drug and alcohol problems), teams were reluctant to offer longer-term contracts.

Also, his free-swinging ways at the plate — his walk rate ranks 19th out of 20 among players with at least 2,500 plate appearances and 130 home runs the last five years — don’t suggest he’ll age gracefully.

Any nine-figure contract is inherently fraught with major risk, and this one ranks on the higher end of that scale given Hamilton’s history and his move from a hitter’s park to a pitcher’s park, but its term being contained to five years makes it manageable. He’ll be 36 when the contract expires, not 41 like Pujols. And its upside — for at least the first few years, Hamilton is an annual candidate to claim the home run crown and win an MVP — is huge.

Few have ever had Hamilton’s preternatural ease of mashing a baseball to a ballpark’s nether regions or his ability to smack a line drive on a pitch that wasn’t in the vicinity of the strike zone or his size/speed combination as he chases down flyballs in the gap like a man 50 pounds lighter. Few, quite frankly, have played all-around baseball better than Hamilton on his good days.

That’s what made him such a tantalizing target even when the club’s biggest need was another starting pitcher. To that end, it’s likely that either Trumbo or centerfielder Peter Bourjos could become expendable. Trumbo’s power and Bourjos’ defense are both superlative, and young position player talent at cost-controlled prices are valuable commodities that could be used in a trade to land another starter.

Hamilton, the 1999 draft’s No. 1 overall pick, belatedly made his major league debut in 2007 with the Reds after spending several years on baseball’s restricted list as he fought his addiction problem. He played 90 games that year, showing flashes of the prospect he was touted to be and the franchise hitter he would become in Texas after an offseason trade for starter Edinson Volquez.

With the Rangers he never failed to make the All-Star team in five seasons. He reached 30 homers and 100 RBIs in three seasons and won the ’10 MVP while also staking claim to a batting title with a .359 average. He tied a major league record with four home runs in a single game back on May 8 amidst a six-game stretch in which he homered nine times.

He did, however, have difficulty staying healthy, playing as many as 150 games only once and logging just 343 games from 2009-11. Team president Nolan Ryan called him out for giving away at bats. Hamilton dropped a routine flyball on the final day of the season, contributing to a loss in Oakland that cost the Rangers the division title. And he struggled so mightily at the plate down the stretch that his final appearance in a Rangers uniform — a home loss to the Orioles in the wild-card game — ended with the local fans booing him.

Maybe it was time to move on, even if Hamilton had publicly stated that he’d give Texas a chance to match any offer he received. According to several reports quoting Rangers general manager Jon Daniels, that courtesy was not extended on Thursday.

The siren’s song of Los Angeles has become too irresistible. Baseball’s budding epicenter has shifted westward to Hollywood, where the game’s new power brokers are the Angels and Dodgers, who have been empowered by television riches to freely outspend their competition. The Dodgers are on pace to be the sport’s highest spenders, likely becoming the first to take that title away from the Yankees in 15 years. Barring another move, the Angels will have staked a firm grasp on No. 5 on the payroll list.

The northeastern I-95 corridor of the Yankees, Phillies and Red Sox — the presumed Nos. 2 through 4 on the payroll rankings — has shown relative restraint in stringently offering high-value but short-term contracts.

Both Hamilton and Greinke were presumed to want to avoid the big-city spotlight — Greinke for his past issues with anxiety; Hamilton for his struggles with addiction — yet both ended up in the nation’s second largest city. How either will fare in their new environs is unclear, but at least both will share clubhouses with rosters loaded with some of the game’s biggest stars, helping deflect attention.

Consider the budding crosstown rivalry: the Dodgers have Matt Kemp, Carl Crawford and Andre Ethier in their outfield while the Angels have Hamilton, Trout and Trumbo in theirs. At first base the Dodgers have Adrian Gonzalez to the Angels’ Pujols. In the rotations are Greinke, Clayton Kershaw and Josh Beckett for the Dodgers while the Angels have Jered Weaver, C.J. Wilson and Tommy Hanson.

The arms race — and the bats race — continues out west, where the Angels and Dodgers have snared the top free-agent hitter and the top free-agent pitcher, dueling with each other and the rest of baseball in the free-spending marketplace, one mega-deal at a time, each a bit riskier than the one before it.