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ByAndrewBaggarly BayAreaNewsGroup DENVER TheSanFranciscoGi- ants held a hitter's meeting prior to Tuesday's 3-2 victory at Co- ors Field, and of course, report- ers are not invited to such gath- erings. So there's no telling whether it was all fire and brimstone or involved audio-visual equipment or if any chickens lost their lives. But before a word was spo- ken, the Giants already under- stood the point: they needed to hit more. And they did. Barely. Kelby Tomlinson took an 0-2 fastball on the fists and turned it into a rainmaker. His jam-shot single to left field scored Buster Posey, who had reached on a two-base error, and the Giants snuck out of Coors Field with a victory that kept them clinging to the NL's top wild card entry. Jeff Samardzija dominated over seven innings while match- ing his season high with nine strikeouts and Eduardo Núñez knocked in the Giants' other two runs, hitting a home run in the third inning and then an RBI ground out that erased a one- run deficit in the eighth. Santiago Casilla, still trusted with a one-run lead in the ninth inning despite an NL-most seven blown saves, might have earned back a speck of faith. He got noted Giant slayer No- lan Arenado to fly out, and re- corded his 31st save when Ge- rardo Parra hit into a double play. The Giants (74-64) remained a half-game ahead of the Car- dinals and 1 ½ games in front of the Mets in the NL wild card picture after their two closest pursuers both won. MLB GIANTSTAKELATE LEAD, TOP ROCKIES Samardzija strikes out 9 in seven innings SanFranciscoGiants'HunterPencewarmsupintheon-deckcircle in the first inning against the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday. PHOTOS BY DAVID ZALUBOWSKI — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS San Francisco Giants starter Jeff Samardzija delivers a pitch to Colorado Rockies batter Carlos Gonzalez in the first inning Tuesday. By Jimmy Durkin Bay Area News Group ALAMEDA Karl Joseph wasn't down on himself Tuesday after the news came out that he was shifted to second-team safety on the Raiders' depth chart for their season-opener against the New Orleans Saints. "I didn't expect anything given to me," Joseph told this newspaper. "I've just got to keep learning, keep getting better and keep growing as a player and everything else will fall in its place. "I have a lot of confidence in myself and I have no doubt in myself that I'll get my spot back." Veteran Nate Allen now is the listed starter at strong safety ahead of Joseph, the Raiders' first-round pick who had held that spot since the initial depth chart was released Aug. 8. "I'm just getting ready for the Saints right now and we'll let everything else fall into place, whether it's starting on special team or on defense," Allen said. Raiders coach Jack Del Rio had hinted recently that Joseph had a ways to go. "He's still growing," coach Jack Del Rio said of Joseph on Aug. 27 after the Raiders exhi- bition game against Tennessee. "He's still competing for time, still developing. Remember, he missed the whole offseason. For a young guy, as far as getting reps, he was there mentally do- ing the best he could but it takes RAIDERS Rookie safety Joseph vows to regain top spot By Gideon Rubin The Associated Press BERKELEY The 7,500 mile trip, 17-hour time difference, and all the hoopla surrounding the first college football game played in Australia in three decades was easy. The hard part for the Cal Bears was coming home. "We felt great there, the real problem was getting back here," senior quarterback Davis Webb said. Fortunately for the Bears, they had a bye week to regroup from their globe-trotting, and by all ac- counts they've recovered from the jetlag and hangover from a trip that was punctuated with a 51-32 victory over Hawaii at ANZ Sta- dium in Sydney on Aug. 26. And now it's all business for Cal as it prepares for Saturday's matchup with San Diego State. "We feel good now, we've ad- justed," Webb said. "Now we're ready for San Diego State." The Bears practiced in full pads twice and had two light practice days during their bye week, Cal coach Sonny Dykes said. "We probably needed an open week coming off of that long trip to Australia and the travel and our guys getting rolling back ac- ademically," Dykes said. "It was good to have a little bit of time to get back in the flow last week and get back and get our feet un- der us." Getting back in the flow was especially important because the Bears missed some practices in Sydney due to bad weather and stadium issues. Dykes said he's determined to make up for that lost time he believes was a factor in his team playing a less physical game than he ex- pected. "I felt that coming out of fall camp that we were a really phys- ical football team, and then we got to Australia and we had some field issues and I felt like in some ways we lost that physical edge that we had had in camp," Dykes said. "It felt like we needed to get it back last week." Senior offensive lineman Chris Borrayo might have been the only player that didn't need to get it back. He never adjusted to the Australian time change in the first place. "The funny thing is, coming back from Australia, I was never accustomed to the jetlag from there, so every night I'd be waking up around 5 o'clock or 6 o'clock, just trying get some more rest, " he said. "When I got back here it took me about a day adjusted back to the time." Cal players took in some of the culture along with the football. Sophomore defensive end Cameron Saffle visited Sydney's iconic Harbour Bridge and Op- era House. He and sophomore nickelback Trey Turner learned about indigenous culture during a meeting with aboriginal Aus- tralians. "A lot of our team had never been out of the country so it was pretty awesome," he said. "The trip was an amazing experience. It gave our team a lot of perspec- tive." COLLEGE FOOTBALL Coming home the hard part for Cal a er Australia trip JULIO CORTEZ — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Gael Monfils chases down a shot from Lucas Pouille during the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open tournament Tuesday in New York. By Howard Fendrich The Associated Press NEW YORK That Novak Djokovic would reach his 10th consecu- tive U.S. Open semifinal should surprise no one. That he's done it by playing only two complete matches because three opponents pulled out of the tournament with injuries is as odd as can be. Djokovic, the No. 1 seed and defending champion, once again needed to put in very little work, advancing when No. 9 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga stopped because of a hurt left knee after the first point of their quarterfinal's third set Tues- day night. The first two sets went Djokov- ic's way 6-3, 6-2. At the ensuing changeover Tsonga was visited by a trainer and had his left leg taped below the knee. Tsonga double-faulted to begin the third set, then retired from the match. This came after Djokovic's sec- ond-round opponent, Jiri Vesely, withdrew from the tournament with a sore left forearm. And the man Djokovic was supposed to play in the third round, Mikhail Youzhny, quit after six games be- cause of a strained left hamstring. During his on-court interview, Djokovic was posed the question on everyone's mind by ESPN's Brad Gilbert: "What in the world is going on?" "You tell me. I don't know, re- ally," Djokovic replied. "Obviously, I have to say it again: I really wish Jo a quick recovery. It's never nice to be on the court in a quarterfi- nal of a Grand Slam and retiring a match after a few sets." In Thursday's semifinals, Djokovic will play No. 10 Gael Monfils, who advanced earlier against No. 24 Lucas Pouille, the man who eliminated Ra- fael Nadal in the fourth round. Playing steadily, and with only a dose of the spectacular, Monfils reached his first major semifinal since 2008 by beating an error- US OPEN Monfilsreachessemifinals Will face No. 1 Djokovic a er opponent Tsonga withdraws due to a hurt knee RAIDERSATNEWORLEANS When: Sunday, 10a.m. TV: FOX TUNEIN RAIDERS PAGE 2 TENNIS PAGE 2 GIANTS PAGE 2 SPORTS » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, September 7, 2016 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B1