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Monday, September 26, 2022 SECTION B Matt Miller . Sports Editor . 707.427.6995

J.D. Davis’ 4 hits, big home run, lead Giants over Dbacks

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After stranding runners in scoring position the previous two innings, when the Giants rallied in the eighth inning Sunday against the Diamondbacks, manager Gabe Kapler turned to his bench.

The first man called upon, Mike Yastrzemski, walked, loading the bases.

Evan Longoria, their next pinch-hitter, ripped a double into left field.

The double broke the Giants’ scoring drought, driving in their first two runs of the game, and gave them the lead. But it took an add-on shot from J.D. Davis in the ninth inning to pull out a 3-2 win over the D-backs, after Arizona clawed back for one run against Camilo Doval in the ninth inning.

Davis’ ninth-inning home run landed in the pool beyond right field, his fourth hit of the game, matching a career-high.

Between Doval recording the final three outs and a pair of openers – lefties Scott Alexander and Jarlín García – recording the first five, Jakob Junis limited Arizona to one run on five hits while striking out seven over 5⅓ innings.

With Davis’ big day, Longoria’s clutch hit and another shutdown showing from their bullpen, the Giants finished their penultimate road trip of the season 6-1, taking two of three in Arizona after a fourgame sweep in Colorado.

“I’m really proud of the way the guys prepared all the way through this road trip,” Kapler told reporters in Phoenix. “You get toward the end of the year – it’s been a long season – a lot of guys are tired. But the preparation has been excellent.”

The Giants’ bullpen, including Junis’ bulk work on Sunday, covered 44 of the 63 innings on the trip – 70% of the workload – and limited the D-backs and Rockies to six runs (five earned), a 1.02 ERA.

Junis’ outing was one of his most effective since returning from the injured list in July. He was 0-5 with a 6.00 ERA in his past 12 games entering Sunday, though he also allowed one run over seven innings against Arizona in August.

It was also one of Junis’ best performances with Austin Wynns behind the plate.

Wynns has a 3.75 catcher’s ERA this season. Logan Webb’s ERA in nine starts with him? 1.41. Carlos Rodón’s in 14 starts: 1.85. However, entering Sunday, Junis had a 9.75 ERA when pitching to Wynns.

“I thought Austin Wynns and Jakob Junis worked really well together today,” Kapler said.

Longoria was pinchhitting for Ford Proctor, who made his majorleague debut Saturday and picked up his first major-league hit with a line-drive single to left field that kicked off a bases-loaded rally in the seventh inning.

See Giants, Page B8

Rihanna set to headline Super Bowl halftime

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Rihanna will be the “Only Girl” at the Super Bowl halftime show.

The “Umbrella” singer announced her new gig Sunday, sharing a photo on social media of a hand holding a football in the air that was then retweeted by the NFL and Roc Nation, which has a long-term deal with the NFL to “advise” on the halftime show performer.

“Rihanna is a generational talent, a woman of humble beginnings who has surpassed expectations at every turn,” Roc Nation founder Jay-Z said in a statement. “A person born on the small island of Barbados who became one of the most prominent artists ever. Self-made in business and entertainment.”

Seth Dudowsky, who oversees music at the NFL, also called her a “once-in-a-generation artist who has been a cultural force throughout her career.”

With week 3 of the NFL underway, Super Bowl 2023 is still almost five months out but the headlining gig was already cause for rampant rumor-mongering.

Taylor Swift, who has a new album due out in October, was the talk of the town late last week, but reportedly passed until she rerecords all of her albums to get out from under the control of former manager Scooter Braun.

The “Shut Up and Drive” singer was previously offered the stage at the 2020 championship, but turned down the job in support of Colin Kaepernick.

“I just couldn’t be a sellout, I couldn’t be an enabler,” she told Vogue in October 2019.

Mike Coppola/Getty Images/TNS Rihanna poses for a picture as she celebrates her beauty brands Fenty Beauty and Fenty Skin at Goya Studios, Los Angeles, Feb. 11.

Anthony ‘Fluffy’ Hernandez wins third UFC fight in a row

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With three wins in a row now in the UFC following this past weekend’s bout, local fighter and Dunnigan native Anthony “Fluffy” Hernandez is in arguably the best form of his fighting career.

“Things are going up,” Hernandez said. “I believed I was going to be here for a long time. I just had to get through some mental stuff, but I’m good now and project to keep winning. I’ve gotten older and smarter and taken a wiser approach lately, and it’s been paying off. It’s a lot less damaging. I listen to my body and don’t overtrain it.”

Last Saturday, Sept. 17, at UFC Fight Night 210: Sandhagen vs. Song, Hernandez showed off his submission arsenal and technique in a middleweight bout when he defeated Canadian Marc-André Barriault via a third-round submission, improving to 10-2 in the UFC with one no-contest.

Hernandez has now ended three out of his previous five fights, four of them wins, with three different submissions, including an arm-triangle chokehold against Barriault, a guillotine choke against Rodolfo Vieira back in February of 2021, and an anaconda choke against Jun Yong Park in 2019.

“Honestly, I have a lot of submission skills, but I’ve been exploring them a lot more,” Hernandez said. “I feel my

Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group file

Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry (30) holds up his MVP trophies as his wife Ayesha Curry looks on during the Championship Parade on Market Street in San Francisco, June 20.

Steph Curry ‘still getting better’ as he enters 14th NBA season

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SAN FRANCISCO — Talking heads on TV and fans on social media can continue to speculate who’s the best player in the NBA. But Giannis Antetokounmpo believes the answer to who deserves that title is quite simple.

It’s Stephen Curry.

Speaking to reporters Sunday at Bucks media day, Antetokounmpo shared his reasoning.

“The best player in the world is the person that is the last one standing, the person that takes his team to the finish line and helps them win games and become champion,” Antetokounmpo said. “. . . In my opinion, the way I view it, the winner is the best. . . I believe that the best player in the world is Steph Curry until the next player.”

Curry blushed at Antetokounmpo’s remarks when they were shared with him later at Warriors’ media day.

“We all want to win the championship, and when you look at the team that’s the last team standing and who was playing the best, I was thinking the same thing about him last year, coming off their run,” Curry said.

Curry might be viewed as the best player in the league by a fellow competitor and have another NBA ring coming his way on opening night. But don’t think for a second that the reigning Finals MVP is at all complacent heading into his 14th NBA season.

If anything, the Warriors’ most recent hike to the league’s mountaintop only revitalized the 34-year-old superstar.

“That championship glow is real,” Curry said. “To get back there was meaningful, and you embrace it and appreciate it. Appreciate the vibe you’ve built with the new-look team built on the core, the guys that have been around the block.

“Very excited about what it means coming into this season trying to defend, knowing there will be new challenges for everybody as a team and everybody individually.”

Curry is embracing being one of the oldest guys in the locker room – alongside 38-year-old Andre Iguodala, who’s returning for his 19th NBA season. And Curry believes he still has ample left in the tank as he eyes another chance at a repeat.

Curry said he’s “fresh and

See Curry, Page B8

Mets’ Alonso drives in five in win over A’s

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OAKLAND — Think of the best seasons by the best hitters – any of them – in the history of the Mets. Who comes to mind? Darryl Strawberry a bunch of years in the 1980s. Mike Piazza right before or after the turn of the century. John Olerud in 1998. David Wright in ’07 or ’08, to choose two. Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado along with him. The list goes on.

Pete Alonso has topped them all in one of the categories he values most: runs batted in.

He highlighted the Mets’ 13-4 win over the Athletics on Sunday with a massive game: 4-for-5, a titanic two-run homer, a three-run double that was nearly a grand slam, three runs scored.

Those five RBIs upped his total to 128, a singleseason franchise record and the most in the National League this year. He powered past the prodigious production of 1999 Piazza and 2008 Wright, who each had 124. Alonso is also tied for fourth on that list, by the way, with 120 in 2019, his rookie season.

Alonso began the day one RBI shy of tying the record. The Mets already led Oakland by five in the fourth inning when he stepped to the plate with Francisco Lindor (two-run double) on second and two outs. He greeted rookie reliever Norge Ruiz, who had just entered the game, by sending a slider into the second section of seats in left-centerfield.

At a projected 451 feet, Alonso’s 39th home run was his longest of the season.

The record was his. And then he extended it. With the bases loaded in the eighth, he lined a double off the rightfield wall, plating all three runs.

Lindor (three RBIs, three runs) and Eduardo Escobar (two RBIs) each had three hits. Every Mets starting position player except Darin Ruf (0-for-4, walk) reached base multiple times.

Max Scherzer, meanwhile, tossed a routine six innings in which he allowed one run, four hits and a walk. He struck out seven.

Most significantly, on a day when the Mets scored plenty and manager Buck Showalter had several relievers he wanted to get into the game, Scherzer reached his approximate pitch limit of 91 – a normal step up from his previous outing, setting him up for 100 or more next weekend against Atlanta.

By retiring his first two batters in the first inning, Scherzer ran his streak of consecutive outs to 27 – as many as one would have in a perfect game. Those came across three starts, though, dating to Sept. 3.

His biggest out was the last of the first. With two on and two out, Scherzer struck out Dermis Garcia. The Mets took the lead against lefthander JP Sears (3 2/3 innings, six runs) in the next halfinning and expanded on it shortly thereafter.