WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Houston Astros left-hander Framber Valdez has a fractured left ring finger, an injury that could deal another blow to the team's banged-up starting rotation.

The 27-year-old was hurt on the fifth pitch of his spring training debut Tuesday at Port St. Lucie, on a one-hopper off the bat of the New York Mets' Francisco Lindor for the second out of the first inning. The ball hit the finger as Valdez grabbed the ball, and after throwing to first for the out, he flexed the finger several times.

He took a few warm-ups and stayed in the game. Valdez finished two innings, throwing 24 pitches.

"Following his outing, we decided to have Framber examined," Astros general manager James Click said Wednesday. "The X-ray revealed the injury. At this point, the medical staff needs to do additional tests and imaging before deciding on the next steps. We will know more in the upcoming days."

Valdez was 5-3 with a 3.57 ERA in 10 starts and one relief appearance last year, striking out 76 and walking 16 in a team-high 70⅔ innings.

Houston already was missing ace Justin Verlander, who probably will miss the entire season after Tommy John surgery on Sept. 30. Valdez had been projected to be part of a rotation that includes Zack Greinke, Cristian Javier, Lance McCullers Jr. and Jose Urquidy.

New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone is taking an immediate medical leave of absence to have surgery to get a pacemaker, the team announced Wednesday.

Boone, 47, who had open-heart surgery in 2009, said in a statement that he's had mild symptoms of lightheadedness, low energy and shortness of breath over the past six to eight weeks. He said further tests in New York prior to spring training indicated he had a low heart rate, necessitating the surgery, which will be performed Wednesday at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, Florida.

"My faith is strong, and my spirits are high," Boone said in a statement released by the team. "I'm in a great frame of mind because I know I'm in good hands with the doctors and medical staff here. ... They are confident that today's surgery will allow me to resume all of my usual professional and personal activities and afford me a positive long-term health prognosis without having to change anything about my way of life."

Boone, entering his fourth season as manager of the Yankees, said he looks forward "to getting back to work in the next several days."

Bench coach Carlos Mendoza took over as acting manager for Wednesday night's exhibition against Toronto in Tampa.

"It's a necessary step,'' general manager Brian Cashman said of Boone's surgery. "It's something that's not avoidable and needs to be taken care of, but he has no fear and I know he's just in great hands and it's just a temporary timeout. He looks forward to getting back to doing what he does best and doing what he loves, which is baseball.''

Cashman said that, at first, he was alarmed by the news, but was "comfortable" upon talking to Boone about the surgery.

"When you hear 'pacemaker,' it kind of sets off a lot of alarms of concern," Cashman said. "... No one's going to do more research than the person that's going to be going through this, and I felt so comforted by the way he communicated with me on it that he put me at ease."

Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner said "the thoughts of the entire organization are with Aaron and his family" in a statement released by the team.

"Aaron leads our players, coaches and staff with a rare combination of work ethic, intelligence and a genuine concern for others," Steinbrenner said. "Our only priority at this time is Aaron's health and well-being, and we will support him in every way throughout his recovery."

Boone played in the major leagues from 1997 to 2009 and was an All-Star for the Yankees in 2003, the year his 11th-inning home run off Boston's Tim Wakefield in Game 7 of the AL Championship Series won the pennant for New York. He is a third-generation major leaguer; his grandfather Gus, father Bob and brother Bret also played in the big leagues, and his nephew Jake is a minor leaguer in the Washington organization.

ESPN's Marly Rivera and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

CLEVELAND -- Indians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti said Wednesday that he couldn't comment on his previous remarks about Mickey Callaway's conduct due to Major League Baseball's ongoing investigation into sexual harassment allegations against the team's former pitching coach.

Antonetti joined Terry Francona for the manager's Zoom availability from training camp in Arizona, a day after a story by The Athletic said several former Indians employees had come forward in the past month to say the team's front office was aware of Callaway's behavior.

The unidentified employees responded to Antonetti's public comments on Feb. 4 that he didn't know about Callaway's lewd actions until he read a previous Athletic story.

At the time, Antonetti said "there had never been any complaints against Mickey in his time with us, either to me or to our human resources department or other leaders."

Antonetti was asked Wednesday if he stood by his earlier comments.

"I very much want to answer that," he said. "At this point I'm not able to. The last time we talked, the investigation had not yet started, so I had more latitude with what I was able to share. With the ongoing investigation, the most important thing is that the investigation is able to maintain its integrity, its thoroughness, its impartiality.

"And I don't want to do anything that would jeopardize that investigation. As importantly, we look forward to learning what that investigation reveals so we can make sure that we address everything in totality and not in piecemeal."

On Tuesday, Francona said there was no deliberate attempt to cover up for Callaway, who was with the Cleveland team from 2010 to 2017 -- serving as the pitching coach for five years -- before he was hired as manager of the New York Mets.

Callaway has been suspended as the Los Angeles Angels pitching coach, pending the outcome of MLB's investigation.

Antonetti said he should have been the one to deliver the team's message Tuesday, not Francona. He reiterated that the team is "fully cooperating with the investigation."

In the most recent story, the husband of a woman who had an extramarital affair with Callaway contacted the Cleveland team multiple times to complain about his behavior in 2017. Callaway told The Athletic that "any relationship in which I was engaged has been consensual, and my conduct was in no way intended to be disrespectful to any women involved.″

One Cleveland employee told The Athletic that Callaway's behavior was "the worst-kept secret in the organization."

Antonetti, who has been with the Cleveland organization since 1999, said the team has already taken steps toward "building an inclusive culture."

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- - Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Tim Locastro has tested positive for COVID-19.

Manager Torey Lovullo said on Wednesday that Locastro tested positive Tuesday night and would be out for 10 days unless there had been a false positive. Lovullo added that Locastro feels good and currently has no symptoms.

The 28-year-old Locastro is expected to have a sizable role with the Diamondbacks this season, either as the starting center fielder or a versatile backup outfielder. He hit .290 last season with two homers and four stolen bases in 33 games.

"He's doing good," Lovullo said. "I got the information last night, spoke to him this morning and he's in the protocol and feeling fine."

Lovullo said he had "minimal concern" that Locastro's positive result would lead to widespread COVID-19 issues on the roster. Catcher Stephen Vogt missed a few days early in camp because of a positive COVID-19 test result but has since returned.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Anyone who thought Kyle Larson might be rusty upon his return to the NASCAR Cup Series has been proven wrong over the first three races of the season.

Larson earned two top-10 finishes in the opening month of the year, and likely would have been a perfect three-for-three if not for a late spin during the Feb. 21 road course race at Daytona Int’l Speedway.

That was the only misstep on a résumé that has been nearly flawless since Larson’s return to NASCAR with the powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports team.

“I’ve been happy with the start of the year,” Larson said during a media conference call this week. “I feel like for the most part, we’ve contended for a win, in a way, each week. So that’s been good. … I wish I could have turn six back at the (Daytona) road course because I felt like we had a great shot to win, but would have likely finished top three in that race, but I’m happy with where we’re at.

“It’s a new team and new faces,” Larson added. “I haven’t been in a Cup car in a long time and to be as strong as we’ve been and drive the whole race at every race has been really good. So I’ve been happy.”

After being suspended by NASCAR and subsequently fired by Chip Ganassi Racing last April, Larson’s NASCAR comeback during Speedweeks at Daytona Intl Speedway last month left him pleasantly surprised he didn’t have more relearning to do.

Part of that shortened curve, Larson admitted, likely was due to his 46-win season on dirt that kept him “as fresh as ever” behind the wheel.

“I was surprised. I thought there would be cobwebs and rust,” Larson noted. “But maybe because I raced so much last year in sprint cars and open-wheel cars, and dabbled in some late model stuff, I felt as fresh as ever in a race car. Your body just gets into a rhythm of even buckling in the car each week. When I got in the car and put my head and neck restraint on and buckled up and all that, everything just felt normal. It didn’t feel like I had been out of the car a long time. So that was good. Even shifting gears and coming down pit road and stopping on my pit sign and stuff like that, it’s all come naturally so far.

“I don’t really feel like I’ve made any mistakes doing those little things. I think when you’re out of a car for a long time, it’s the little things that you forget about,” he continued. “I think just the preparation that I’ve done by looking at data and lots of in-car videos … and some iRacing and stuff like that has helped make that transition a little bit easier for me.”

As he’s adapted to a new organization, Larson explained he hasn’t felt many of the differences that he thought he might between Chip Ganassi Racing and Hendrick Motorsports.

“If anything, the only difference I really felt at Homestead was just the ride quality was a little bit smoother. There are some bumps on entry to (turn) three up top and usually with the No. 42, I could feel those a lot,” tipped Larson. “In the No. 5 car this weekend, it was just much smoother and it kind of floated across those easier. I’ve been so used to the Ganassi car and how it feels there and feeling those bumps and I’ve ran so many laps on the top there, I could kind of use those bumps as a trigger to my brain and knowing when to lift going through those bumps.

“This past week my car was so smooth through there that it was kind of hard for me to get into a rhythm at first on entry up top, but we’re figuring things out.”

Larson’s focus now is on making a run into the NASCAR Cup Series playoff field, which has three drivers — Michael McDowell, Christopher Bell and William Byron — locked in with victories through three races.

The Elk Grove, Calif., driver is eighth in aggregate points and ninth in the playoff standings but knows that isn’t necessarily safe with 23 regular season races remaining.

“Points are always important. You never want to be in that bubble spot,” said Larson. “I’ve been in that before and it’s not a nice feeling. You need to go out there and wrack up as many stage points as you can and get the best finish you can get each weekend and try to limit those races where you finish outside of the top 20.”

Larson will pursue a victory at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway this weekend during the running of the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at the 1.5-mile oval.

His best finish in Cup Series competition at Las Vegas is second, earned in March of 2017 and repeated during the 2018 playoffs.

Quetta Gladiators 176 for 7 (Usman Khan 81, Dhani 3-44) beat Multan Sultans 154 (Rizwan 66, Qais Ahmad 3-21) by 22 runs

At the 14th attempt, the unthinkable happened: the team that lost the toss and were asked to bat first managed to win a match in the 2021 Pakistan Super League.

Winless in their first four games of the season, Quetta Gladiators were unlikely candidates to break the infamous chasing streak, and it was an unlikely contender who fired them to a defendable total. Usman Khan, making his official T20 debut at the age of 25, hit 81 off 50 balls to lead them to 176 for 7, a total which could and should have been significantly higher but for a stumble in the middle overs.

With the ball, the wizardry of their two main spinners, Qais Ahmad and Mohammad Nawaz, was key, as Multan Sultans became the first side to fall short in a chase despite yet another half-century from Mohammad Rizwan - his third in five innings to date in this tournament.

Usman Khan's debut fireworks

All of the talk about Quetta Gladiators coming into this season revolved around their top-order batting, and specifically their two platinum picks at January's draft. In Chris Gayle and Tom Banton, they had a ready-made opening partnership between the one of the GOATs in the shortest format and one of its brightest young talents.

Things have not played out as planned. Gayle played two innings at No. 3 before departing for Antigua, winning a recall to West Indies' T20I set-up at the age of 41, while Banton was dropped after making nine runs in two innings and watched Wednesday night's game from self-isolation after testing positive for Covid-19.

In their absence, the unknown Usman was plucked from obscurity and played one of the innings of the season to date. He was last seen playing in the D20 tournament in the UAE in December, having made a couple of first-class appearances for Karachi Whites in October 2017, but was thrown in at the deep end alongside the 18-year-old Saim Ayub and got the Gladiators off to a flying start.

Usman was strong all around the ground, but particularly square of the wicket, with a preference for the leg side. He was particularly punishing against Carlos Brathwaite, whom he hit for 27 in 11 balls including a four and two sixes at the end of the 13th, but his best shot was a clean strike over long-on against Imran Tahir.

Sultans fight back

Tahir was making his first appearance of the season, coming into the side alongside Imran Khan and Shan Masood as Usman Qadir, Shahid Afridi and Chris Lynn were left out. It was an emotional night for him, as he dedicated his first wicket to his close friend Tahir Mughal, who passed away in January following a battle with cancer.

And Tahir's second wicket, which saw him trap Usman lbw when reverse-sweeping on 81, sparked a mini-collapse. Faf du Plessis had struggled for timing, making a run-a-ball 17 and playing on off Sohail Khan the ball after Usman's dismissal, and it took a pair of cameos from Azam Khan and Mohammad Nawaz to drag the Gladiators to 176 for 7 after their 20 overs.

Shahnawaz Dhani bowled some superb yorkers at the death, managing to extract movement from the old ball at high pace, but struggled for consistency and ended up conceding 44 from his four overs.

Rizwan's strong start

Rizwan and James Vince started the chase well, racing to 53 for 0 inside the powerplay to stay level with the required rate as they took advantage of a loose start from the Gladiators' seamers and feasted on the legspinner Zahid Mahmood. Sarfaraz Ahmed also burned both of his side's reviews early on.

But Qais and Nawaz came on after the powerplay and immediately put the brakes on. Qais removed Vince in his first over, feathering an edge through to Sarfaraz, and pinned Shan Masood lbw trying to sweep in his second. The four overs immediately after the powerplay brought only 16 runs, leaving the required rate up at 10.8.

Rizwan led the rebuilding job, surviving an optimistic stumping shout from Sarfaraz on 49 but batting with the fluency that has defined his tournament, but Qais struck for a third time as Rilee Rossouw spooned a catch to fine leg. Sohaib Maqsood holed out to long-on, leaving Khushdil Shah as the only real support for Rizwan, and despite an expensive third over from Dale Steyn, the rate continued to look beyond them.

The curse is broken

Mohammad Hasnain made two breakthroughs bowling at high pace in his third over, removing both Shah and Brathwaite, leaving Rizwan as the last man standing. He holed out off Mahmood, who had Sohail caught at long-on a ball later, and should have had a hat-trick but for Ben Cutting's drop at mid-off. Tahir whacked a six over the covers off Hasnain, but the Gladiators managed to close the game out regardless.

The Gladiators are still bottom of the pile on net run-rate, level on points with the Sultans. Both sides have identical records, having lost four games out of five, and are already in real danger of missing out on the play-offs.

US-based Brit hopes to build on his recent 8.08m long jump best at this weekend’s European Indoors in Poland

In 2015 the British long jumper Jacob Fincham-Dukes featured in the Rising Stars column of AW magazine and he won silver at the European Under-20 Championships in Sweden. Now, six years later, he is a medal contender at the European Indoor Championships in Toruń this week.

The 24-year-old has lived in Harrogate, Yorkshire, for most of his life but has been based at Oklahoma State University in recent years and after a promising teenage period that saw him win several English Schools titles, he improved recently to 8.08m at the British trials at Lee Valley for the European Indoor Championships.

That leap puts him No.4 on the UK all-time indoor rankings and on his ambitions in Toruń he says: “Obviously I’d like to win. I’m going into the championships ranked fourth so I’d be disappointed with less than that. And ultimately I’m going there to try to win.

“We look back on the 8.08m that I jumped and if I break it down I think I can jump further. Toruń will be a better facility to jump with a competitive atmosphere of a European competition. So we definitely feel like I can go further and I should be aiming to win, even if it will be tough.”

At those European Juniors from 2015 the winner was Anatoliy Ryapolov of Russia. Most of the leading contenders like Ryapolov are still active too. Thobias Montler, for example, another athlete who competed in the 2015 European Juniors, is in the line-up in Toruń with Fincham-Dukes.

Favourite for gold, though, is Greek athlete Miltiádis Tentóglou – the reigning champion and European No.1 this year.

READ MORE: Euro Indoors preview – men’s field events

Fincham-Dukes began life as a sprint hurdler and says he was a reluctant long jumper to begin with. But as he began to work with long-time coach Matt Barton in Leeds his performances have continued to improve. While studying at Oklahoma State University he has been coached by former triple jumper Zivile Pukstiene. “People struggle to pronounce her name,” says Fincham-Dukes, so we call her Coach Zee!

“She’s been great for my development so I’m really glad I got to meet and train with her,” says Fincham-Dukes. “And I’ve enjoyed every minute of being at Oklahoma State.”

She also works well with his UK-based coach Barton and the athlete says: “Matt created that fundamental base for me and he keeps me ticking over and developing when I come back.”

Indeed, Fincham-Dukes has been back in the UK since early February although of course this week he hopes to make his mark in Poland with his qualifying round on Thursday.

It will be an unusual competition with no spectators and lots of safety procedures but he is taking that in his stride. “It all fairly usual now,” he says. “I have my negative results to show at the airport and we get tested at the hotel and the facility on entry and all the way along and then of course before we come back to enter Britain. It’s quite standard now and how we live life, I guess.”

Exeter's England and British & Irish Lions winger Jack Nowell has suffered a further injury setback which could keep him out until the final few games of the domestic season.

But a new undisclosed injury means he could be out for a few more months.

"I think it's going to be a little while before we see Jack," said Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter.

"At this stage it's a bit early to give the full extent of the injury; it's just one of those things," Baxter told BBC Radio Devon.

"We kind of held Jack back for a week to give him a couple of weeks of full training, and unfortunately later on in the second week, he pulled up with another injury and now we're going to have to wait a little while longer until we get him back to full fitness."

'Stay energised and deal with rehab'

Nowell's injury could scupper his chances of a call-up for this summer's Lions tour - if it happens.

The Cornwall-born winger was a surprise call-up to the tour to New Zealand in 2017 but featured as a replacement in two of the three Tests against the All Blacks.

He has not played for England since his one solitary outing at the 2019 World Cup.

"He's got some concerns over the fact that this probably means he won't play international rugby this year," Baxter added.

"There's a Lions tour at the end of this year that he's desperate to be involved with so he's very aware of those things.

"We're trying make sure that he's aware that without doubt I know that the Lions management will 100% be looking beyond just international players, especially players who have played international rugby recently and haven't been involved because of things like this with injuries.

"The only thing I can encourage him to do is to stay energised and deal with his rehab well and come back and that there'll be enough rugby left for him with Exeter. Hopefully we will be involved in enough big games that there'll be plenty of opportunities to showcase his talent."

There is "intense disappointment" in the England camp that the 2021 Rugby World Cup is to be delayed by a year.

Speaking to BBC Sport, Rugby Football Union head of women's performance Nicky Ponsford says she does not believe the decision was a "gender issue".

She said: "World Rugby wants the World Cup to be a pinnacle event so wants it played under optimum conditions."

Ponsford added: "That means the teams get to prepare properly, that everybody gets to qualify on the pitch and that we play in front of full stadia with crowds not just from New Zealand but from across the world."

Following the announcement of the delay, former Wales full-back Dyddgu Hywel echoed a number of voices saying women's international rugby was being treated unfairly compared to the men during the pandemic.

However Ponsford can see positives from the decision: "Lots of friends, family, supporters of the women's game have said 'brilliant we'll get to go'.

"Yes there is some men's sport happening but I'd counter that with 'yes there's some women's sport happening, Allianz Premier 15s is happening week in week out'.

"And there are no crowds at the men's Six Nations, we might get some crowds at the end of our Six Nations so there are pros and cons to all of this."

The World Cup had originally been planned to be held in New Zealand from the 18 September to 16 October.

New Zealand's borders are currently closed to most travellers following recent outbreaks of coronavirus.

It is understood that completing the qualification schedule and player quarantine measures for 11 visiting Test sides were becoming logistically too complicated.

While New Zealand's Black Ferns are favourites win a sixth title, England's Red Roses are expected to be their greatest challengers and the Rugby Football Union had ensured its players were exposed to as much game time as Covid-19 restrictions allowed.

After speaking to the England players on Wednesday morning, Ponsford said: "We've had huge amounts of support, everyone has worked tirelessly and gone above and beyond to get the game to where we are now.

"I think on reflection, we can't underestimate how much this has been good for us, every session we've done is a session in the bank."

While dates are yet to be discussed for the tournament next year, England will now sit down with all their players individually to discuss their futures and possible retirements.

"We know there are players coming to the latter end of their career and it is a discussion about what is right for those players."

Ponsford remains confident the new World Cup dates will be agreed as soon as possible, despite next year being a Commonwealth Games and Sevens World Cup year.

"We've got a lot of planning to do," she said.

"This had made the position with the Olympics an easier work-through for some players who wanted to cross-over."

A final decision on the World Cup delay is expected after the Rugby World Cup board and World Rugby's executive committee consider the recommendation on 8 and 9 March.

England lock Courtney Lawes' British and Irish Lions hopes could be in doubt after he was ruled out for 12 weeks.

With the Premiership season due to end in mid-June, Lawes may not play again before the Lions squad to tackle South Africa is selected by Warren Gatland.

Lawes has played just four times since having ankle surgery in October.

He started twice for Northampton in December and featured in England's opening two Six Nations matches - starting against Italy - before his latest injury.

He is the second potential English Lions player to see his chances hampered by injury.

Exeter wing Jack Nowell - who, like Lawes, featured in the final two Tests of the 2017 tour of New Zealand - has also been ruled out until the tail end of this season.

England have called up Lawes' uncapped Northampton team-mate David Ribbans, 25, to their squad for the rest of the Six Nations campaign.