Giants’ 2B La Stella has surgery on left Achilles
San Francisco Giants second baseman Tommy La Stella underwent surgery on his left Achilles this week, but is expected to be back on the field at some point during spring training, the team announced.
La Stella, 32, batted .250 with seven home runs and 27 RBIs in 76 games this past season, his first with the Giants. He missed about three months during the season because of a fractured hand and a hamstring strain.
La Stella has been playing through the Achilles issue during the final weeks of the regular season and aggravated the injury fielding a ball at second base during Game 4 of the NLDS against the Dodgers.
The career .270 hitter just completed the first of a three-year contract with the Giants.
Golf
PENDRITH HAS BIG LEAD IN FOURTH START >> Canada’s Taylor Pendrith moved closer to his first career PGA Tour victory, opening a three-shot lead after three rounds of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship at Southampton, Bermuda.
Pendrith moved to 17-under 196 following his 6-under-par 65 on the Port Royal Golf Course as he built the largest 54-hole lead in tournament history. His solid round came one day after he delivered a course-record 10-under 61.
With two birdies over the final three holes, Pendrith moved three shots ahead of New Zealand’s Danny Lee (65) and four ahead of Austraila’s Lucas Herbert (65). A non-American has won each of the last three PGA Tour events.
Patrick Rodgers (69) and Vincent Whaley (68) are in a tie for fourth place heading into Sunday’s final round.
MMA
TEIXEIRA WINS FIRST UFC CHAMPIONSHIP AT 42 >> Glover Teixeira stopped Jan Błachowicz by submission in the second round at UFC 267, with the 42-year-old Brazilian veteran claiming Błachowicz’s light heavyweight belt and becoming the oldest first-time champion in UFC history.
Teixeira (33-7) finished the 38-year-old Błachowicz (28-9) by rear naked choke in an impressive upset victory that capped a remarkable late-career surge.
Petr Yan also won an interim bantamweight title with a hard-hitting decision victory over Cory Sandhagen.
Tennis
TIAFOE TO FACE ZVEREV FOR TITLE >> American qualifier Frances Tiafoe rallied from a set and 5-2 down to beat Jannik Sinner 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 and set up a final against Alexander Zverev at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna.
Zverev defeated Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz 6-3, 6-3 to reach his fifth tourlevel final of the season.
The seventh-seeded Sinner had won his previous 11 matches and 22 sets on indoor hardcourt and the 20-year-old Italian looked set to continue his streak when he came within one game of another two-set win.
However, the 49thranked Tiafoe won eight of the next nine games to take the second set and build a 3-1 lead in the third. He added another break before closing out the win with his seventh ace of the match.
Tiafoe is after his second career title, three years after winning in Delray Beach as a 20-year-old and becoming the youngest American winner on the ATP tour since Andy Roddick was 19 when he triumphed in Houston in 2002.
NHL
COMMISSIONER MEETS WITH BEACH >> NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman talked to Kyle Beach about what the league can do to better protect its players after the former firstround pick said he was sexually assaulted by an assistant coach in 2010 and his allegations were largely ignored by the Chicago Blackhawks.
Donald Fehr, the leader of the NHL players’ association, also met with Beach in a separate video conference call.
Susan Loggans, an attorney representing Beach in a lawsuit against the team, said Bettman expressed his “sincere regret” over what Beach had experienced. He also offered the NHL’s help with psychological services for him and his family and anything else that the league had available.
Loggans said Beach’s meeting with Fehr covered the league’s substance abuse and behavioral health program, which did not follow up when Beach reported what happened.
The NHLPA has scheduled a Monday call for its executive board. What happened with Beach is expected to be discussed during the meeting.
Ice Skating
CHEN SKATES TO VICTORY >> Nathan Chen ran away with Skate Canada in an emphatic response to sub-par performance a week ago at Skate America.
After winning 14 straight events since March 2018, the 22-year-old American star finished with 200.46 points in front of a limited crowd at the University of British Columbia’s Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre in Vancouver.
The three-time world champion also who won the Grand Prix Final in Vancouver in 2019.
Fellow American Jason Brown was second at 259.55.