BALTIMORE -- Garrett Crochet gave the Boston Red Sox an immediate return on their investment.

In his first start since agreeing to a $170 million, six-year contract, the left-hander pitched a career-best eight innings as the Red Sox shut out the Baltimore Orioles 3-0 on Wednesday night. Crochet also threw 102 pitches, one shy of his career high.

"My first start in college I went eight, and I haven't sniffed it since," Crochet said.

Crochet (1-0) allowed four hits and a walk while striking out eight in his first victory since the offseason trade that sent him from the Chicago White Sox to Boston.

"That's the reason he's here," manager Alex Cora said after the game. "That's the reason we committed to him."

Crochet went 6-12 with a 3.58 ERA last season, a bright spot on a Chicago team that lost 121 games. He threw 146 innings, which was double his previous career total since his debut in 2020.

Then Crochet was dealt to the Red Sox, and they made their long-term commitment to the 25-year-old lefty earlier this week.

"Going back to when the trade went through, we knew Boston was a place where we would love to be long term," Crochet said. "Credit to the front office for staying diligent, and my agency as well."

Now the question is less about where he'll pitch and more about how well. He's off to a nice start in that regard.

"I can't think of the last time I played baseball for pride. In college you're playing to get drafted, and once you're in the big leagues, you're playing to stay in the big leagues," Crochet said. "So to have this security and feel like I'm playing to truly just win ballgames, it takes a lot of the riff-raff out of it."

The news all around was good for Boston on Wednesday.

It reached a $60 million, eight-year deal with young infielder Kristian Campbell, and he went out and doubled twice against the Orioles.

And Rafael Devers ended a 21-at-bat hitless streak to start the season with an RBI double in the fifth inning. He finished with two hits and no strikeouts.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Rugby Football Union chief executive Bill Sweeney says "it has not been an easy time personally" after surviving a vote of no confidence last week.

The motion, which called for the RFU board to terminate Sweeney's employment, was voted against by 65%.

Those supporting the motion, such as the referees' union and Championship clubs, had cited various perceived governance failures on Sweeney's watch.

In a letter to member clubs, Sweeney says the move took a personal toll but added he is ready to move ahead with a mandate for reform.

"The division sowed by those who brought forward the original SGM motion has played out aggressively in the media and it would be remiss of me not to admit that it has not been an easy time for me personally," said Sweeney.

"However, this role is a privilege and the scrutiny that comes with it is part and parcel of the responsibility."

Sweeney, 67, had been widely criticised for taking home 1.1m last year at a time of record RFU losses.

The RFU declared 37.9m operating losses last year, only a few weeks after announcing plans to lay off more than 40 staff in the latest round of redundancies.

A second motion, to expedite governance reform in the English game, was overwhelmingly supported at the meeting.

Looking to the future, Sweeney continued: "Ultimately this process will help us to re-engage our membership and push forward changes we have long wanted to implement and our members delivered a clear message that they wanted the leadership team we have here to get on with the job and make improvements."

In the letter to RFU members, Sweeney listed three areas where change is being prioritised including governance reform, improved communications and more support to grow participation.

"It is vital not to lose sight of the many brilliant things happening in rugby and the bright future I fully believe is ahead of us," added Sweeney.

"We can only do this together and I look forward to a much closer relationship between the Union and all our game's stakeholders in future."

Diego Simeone insisted that Atlético Madrid had "competed well" this season after Barcelona knocked them out of the Copa del Rey on Wednesday.

Barça won 1-0 in the semifinal second leg at the Metropolitano -- Ferran Torres scoring in the 27th minute -- to progress to the final, 5-4 on aggregate.

Atletico's defeat follows their elimination from the Champions League last 16 by Real Madrid last month, and Saturday's 1-1 LaLiga draw at Espanyol, which left them nine points off the top of the table.

"Here's what I think: the team, up to now, has competed well," Simeone said in his post-match news conference on Wednesday.

"We competed well in the Champions League, we competed well in the Copa, and in the league we're having a good season. We'll keep going, trying to keep improving to get closer to the teams above us, and accepting the place that we have."

Atletico were LaLiga leaders in January, after a 15-game winning run in all competitions, but have suffered a dramatic loss of form in the last month, going six games without a win.

Real Madrid prevailed on penalties in the Champions League -- after Julián Álvarez's spot kick in the shootout was disallowed for touching the ball twice -- and in LaLiga, losses to Barcelona and Getafe preceded the draw at Espanyol.

The Copa del Rey semifinal first leg at Barça ended 4-4 on February 25, with Atletico fighting back from 4-2 down late on, but Wednesday's second leg was a more low-key affair.

"In football, sometimes the opponent is better," Simeone said. "In the second half, we corrected things, and we could have made it a draw. We competed well, against a team that plays well... They're a great opponent, who at times will be superior to you."

Defender José María Giménez apologised to Atletico fans for the team's underperformance.

"[We have to] accept the reality," Giménez said. "We know we're a long way off, but we have to try in the league until the end... After that we'll see if the season has been good or not so good."

Barcelona coach Hansi Flick is dreaming of winning a treble after his side beat Atlético Madrid 1-0 on Wednesday to set up a Clásico showdown against Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final.

Ferran Torres scored the only goal of game at the Estadio Metropolitano to seal a 5-4 aggregate win that kept Barça alive in all three competitions going into the final stretch of the season.

Barça, who previously won a treble in 2009 and 2015, also lead LaLiga by three points with nine games to play, while they face Borussia Dortmund in the quarterfinals of the Champions League. They have already won the Spanish Supercopa this year.

"It's a good moment, but I am experienced, I know how fast it can change," Flick said in his post-game news conference. "Dreaming is allowed and we will work very hard and stay focused.

"It's a big dream for us to win titles. We have the first one [the Supercopa], but in the club they have a lot of space for more titles."

Barça and Madrid, LaLiga's top two, last met in the Copa final in 2014. This year's meeting will take place at the Estadio La Cartuja in Seville on April 26.

But Flick is not looking that far ahead yet. Barça have four league games to play first, starting with Real Betis at home on Saturday followed by the Champions League tie against Dortmund.

"I am living in the present, not the past or the future," he added. "That's why I am not thinking about the final. If you ask about the final, I will say next match is Betis.

"A Clásico, OK it's great, but we have to play many games before then. For me, in my mind, it's really behind all the other important things. For me, it's not important now."

Barça could have scored more in the first half against Atlético, with Jules Koundé, Lamine Yamal and Raphinha all missing chances to grow their lead, but Atlético fought back after the break.

The home side could not find away through, though, as Barça extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to 21 games.

Flick praised the two halves of his side's performance and also singled out Barça's last defeat, against Atlético in LaLiga in December, as the moment their season turned around.

"We were really brave in the first half," he said. "In the second half we suffered a little bit, but the defence made a great job. It's not easy here to have a clean sheet and to win. I think Atlético is one of the best teams not only in Spain, but in Europe, so we are happy with this.

"After the winter break, we improved a lot. In every match, every training, you can see the team believes in our way, how we want to play. The match against Atlético before the break, it was a good point.

"I said to the team then that I was really happy how we played. And if we play like this, we are in a fantastic way. And at the moment it's like that."

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot has said he is "not surprised" that Everton defender James Tarkowski was not shown a red card for his controversial tackle on Alexis Mac Allister in the Merseyside derby.

Diogo Jota scored the only goal at Anfield as Liverpool edged past their city rivals to restore their 12-point advantage at the top of the Premier League table.

However, one of the game's biggest talking points came when referee Sam Barrett chose not to dismiss Tarkowski for a high tackle on Mac Allister in the first half, with VAR choosing not to intervene after a brief check.

"I don't want to comment about the situation because so many people already commented on that," Slot said after the game.

"Even people who don't like Liverpool a lot were so clear and obvious about what the decision should have been. Was I surprised? No."

Slot was more upbeat when it came to Jota, who had gone 10 games without scoring before his strike against Everton.

"Very pleased [with him]," he said. "He was close to scoring already in the first half but I was not surprised they blocked that shot because defensively they're an incredibly strong team.

"He had two of those moments in the second half as well. One of them was blocked but then he found just a bit of space and he scored the goal which was nice for him and nice for us, for his teammates, the staff and the fans."

Everton boss David Moyes voiced his frustration after the match, claiming there had been an offside by Luis Díaz in the build up to Jota's winner.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Moyes said: "I think the player behind Tarkowski interferes with them. Clearly it, it's a clear offside. I think it's a very easy decision to give. I can't understand any reason why that wouldn't have been given offside. None at all."

Fenerbahce manager Jose Mourinho was involved in a bizarre altercation with Galatasaray boss Okan Buruk on Wednesday, grabbing the opposing coach's nose following a narrow defeat in the Turkish Cup.

Victor Osimhen scored twice for the visitors, his second coming from the penalty spot, and Sebastian Szymanski pulled one back for the hosts on the stroke of half-time, but tempers flared late on, with police entering the pitch to restore calm.

A mass scuffle had broken out between both sets of players, with the referee sending three players off -- Fenerbahce's Mert Hakan Yandas as well as Galatasaray's Baris Alper Yilmaz and Kerem Demirbay.

Amid the chaos, Mourinho was seen grabbing the nose of Buruk, who swiftly dropped to the floor holding his face.

MOURINHO'DAN OKAN BURUK'A FİZİKSEL MÜDAHALE! pic.twitter.com/YLlNiSxIwQ

Fotomaç (@fotomac) April 2, 2025

Galatasaray later posted a picture on their official X account of a smiling Buruk looking in Mourinho's direction.

"YOU SHOULD NOT ATTACK, YOU SHOULD DIGEST!" was the message accompanying the picture along with a shushing emoji.

In another post, with a video showing a cartoon version of Mourinho, the club wrote "Galatasaray drives you crazy."

It is the latest controversial incident involving Mourinho this season.

The Portuguese coach, who has repeatedly bemoaned Turkish refereeing, was handed a four-game ban in February for comments he made about match officials after his side's previous meeting with Galatasaray.

He was also accused by Galatasaray of making racist remarks after that game.

Galatasaray said the former Real Madrid, Manchester United and Chelsea manager had used "unequivocally inhumane rhetoric" after he referred to the opposition bench "jumping around like monkeys." Mourinho later sued the club over the accusations.

Information from The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Ten groups have submitted bids to the NFL to be investors in new women's and men's professional flag football leagues, and that round of bids will close this week, sources told ESPN.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in February that the league was "aggressively" exploring creating separate professional flag leagues for men and women.

On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that the 10 investors include Alexis Ohanian's investment firm 776; TKO Group Holdings; Marc Lasry's Avenue Capital Group; partners Ice Cube and Jeff Kwatinetz; Connect Ventures, a partnership between talent agency Creative Artists Agency and venture firm New Enterprise Associates; and SMAC Entertainment, a media company co-founded by Michael Strahan and Constance Schwartz-Morini.

"It's clear that there's a lot of interest in the pro flag league," Goodell said Tuesday at the league's annual meeting in Palm Beach, Florida. "We have been getting bids on people who want to invest in that, either financially or invest in the operations of that, so we're hard at work and I expect there'll be progress soon."

Serena Williams, who is married to Ohanian, appeared at a panel at the NFL meetings on Sunday to address growth in women's sports. Caitlin Clark, Denver Broncos minority owner Mellody Hobson and Eli Manning were also a part of the panel.

Calling her "the GOAT," Goodell said Williams "not just understands women's sports, she understands business and sports and, I think, society." She became a minority owner of the WNBA expansion franchise in Toronto this year and became a part owner of the Miami Dolphins in 2009.

The league has identified flag football as a way to introduce the sport to new fans and grow the game internationally -- and has provided critical support to the effort to include flag football as an Olympic sport in 2028.

According to the National Federation of High Schools, about 500,000 girls ages 6 to 17 played flag football in 2023 -- a 63% increase since 2019, making it one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States. The NFL counts more than 750,000 participants in its NFL flag football league nationwide, and all 32 franchises sponsor their own leagues.

The Philadelphia 76ers announced that star center Joel Embiid is set to undergo arthroscopic surgery next week on his troublesome left knee.

Embiid will be reevaluated in six weeks and is expected to make a full recovery, sources told ESPN's Shams Charania.

For the past several weeks, the 76ers and Embiid have been working toward a solution for the knee issues that have dogged him for more than a year and caused him to be ruled out for the season in late February. Those consultations with doctors and specialists ultimately led to the decision for Embiid to have surgery, with the hope being that he can get back to the level he had played at in prior seasons.

"The way I was playing a year ago is not the way I'm playing right now," Embiid said after a 124-104 loss to Boston back in February, shortly before he was shut down for the season. "It sucks. ... I probably need to fix the problem, and then I'll be back at that level. But it's hard to have trust when you're not yourself."

Embiid finished with averages of 23.8 points, 8.2 rebounds and 4.5 assists in just 19 games this season for Philadelphia, while never at any point showing the kind of form he had across the prior two seasons, when he won the NBA's Most Valuable Player award in 2023 and was on pace to become the second player -- along with Wilt Chamberlain -- to average more points than minutes played in the 2023-24 season before Golden State Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga accidentally fell on his leg in a game in San Francisco in January 2024.

He had a procedure on his knee in February 2024 and returned in April ahead of the playoffs, where he averaged 33 points, 10.8 rebounds and 5.7 assists in what became a six-game loss to the New York Knicks in the first round of the playoffs last spring.

Embiid then went on to play with Team USA in the Paris Olympics, though for much of the summer, he struggled outside of playing a significant role in Team USA's fourth-quarter comeback against Serbia in the tournament's semifinal game.

But after he and the team entered the season with championship aspirations, and with a plan to manage Embiid through the regular season by not playing him in back-to-back games, he then missed the beginning of the regular season for the 76ers after his knee didn't respond the way he hoped it would when he returned to the team. He eventually returned on Nov. 12 against the Knicks, playing four games before missing another couple of weeks, and then sat out for a month with both knee and foot issues in January 2025 before returning for his final stint of the season in February.

It has been a disastrous season for not just Embiid, but the 76ers as a whole. The team's prized free agent acquisition, Paul George, has also been shut down for the season and had his own struggles across the campaign, averaging 16.2 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.8 steals while shooting 43% overall and 35% from 3-point range -- all significantly down from his numbers with the LA Clippers over the past couple of seasons.

Star guard Tyrese Maxey also struggled with his shooting, posting a career-low 43.7% mark overall and 33.7% from 3 -- his lowest number since his rookie year -- while playing in 52 games, and potentially being done for the season with his own set of ailments. And Jared McCain was easily the leading contender for Rookie of the Year when he suffered a torn meniscus in December and saw his season cut short by injury, as well.

Philadelphia's hope now will be that all of this losing will allow the 76ers to keep their first-round pick, which is top-six-protected in this year's NBA draft. If the pick remains in the top six, Philadelphia will keep it. If it is 7 to 30, it will go to the Oklahoma City Thunder as part of the Al Horford-Danny Green swap five years ago.

Entering Thursday's home game against the Milwaukee Bucks, Philadelphia has lost nine games in a row, 15 of its past 17 and 26 of its past 30 -- putting the 76ers in fifth place in the lottery standings, two games ahead of the Brooklyn Nets in sixth. That means two teams would, at least currently, have to jump the 76ers in the standings for Philadelphia to lose its pick, and the 76ers have a roughly 65% chance of keeping it.

The hope will be not only to hang onto that pick and add another young player with high upside to the roster, but also get the collection of injured players back next season, and once again attempt to be a team capable of being a factor in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Those hopes, however, will begin and end with Embiid's health, as he has four years and well over $200 million remaining on his contract with the 76ers.