New York Mets ace Max Scherzer will miss his next two scheduled starts after he was suspended 10 games by Major League Baseball on Thursday for having a foreign substance on his hand during Wednesday's start against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Scherzer was ejected in the fourth inning at Dodger Stadium after he had several interactions with umpires during the customary between-inning hand checks.

Umpire Phil Cuzzi determined after the second inning that Scherzer’s hand was stickier and darker than normal, and ordered the three-time Cy Young winner to wash his hand, which Scherzer said he did with alcohol while a Major League Baseball official watched.

After the third inning, Cuzzi then determined the pocket of Scherzer's glove was "sticky," likely with too much rosin, and he ordered Scherzer to change gloves. The umpires then checked the 38-year-old right-hander again before the fourth, and his hands were even worse than before.

Scherzer said he used only a combination of sweat and rosin to improve tactness. He could be spotted on the TV broadcast yelling that it was "just rosin" on his hands.

"When you use sweat and rosin your hand is sticky," Scherzer said after the game. "But I don’t know how I get ejected when I'm in front of MLB officials doing exactly, exactly what you want and being deemed that my hand's too sticky when I'm using a legal substance. I do not understand that."

Scherzer appealed the penalty imposed by Michael Hill, MLB's senior vice president for on-field operations, and can continue to play until the appeal is decided. The appeal would be heard by MLB special adviser John McHale Jr.

He becomes the third pitcher suspended by MLB since the crackdown on sticky substances started in June 2021. Seattle's Héctor Santiago was penalized June 28 that year, before Arizona’s Caleb Smith was pinged a month later on August 24, with both drawing 10-game penalties.

All three inspections that led to suspensions involved Cuzzi.

Scherzer is 2-1 with a 3.72 ERA in four starts this season with nine walks and 17 strikeouts.

Matt Fitzpatrick and his brother Alex shot a four-ball round of 62 on Thursday at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans to sit one stroke off the lead through 18 holes in the unique format.

The only duos event on the PGA Tour calendar, the pairs of Wyndham Clark with Beau Hossler and Sean O'Hair with Brandon Matthews took the first-round lead with 11-under 61s as each member played every hole, with only the best score from each hole counting towards their team's score.

Hossler contributed seven of his team's 11 birdies, while Matthews had five birdies and an eagle for his pairing.

The Fitzpatrick brothers poured in five birdies each to earn a spot in the five-way tie for second place, joined by the teams of Keith Mitchell with Im Sung-jae, David Lipski with Aaron Rai, Henrik Norlander with Luke List, and Noh Seung-yul with Michael Kim.

Last year's runners-up Sam Burns and Billy Horschel are three strokes off the pace in a logjam at eight under, while one of the strongest teams in the field featuring world number 13 Collin Morikawa and world number seven Max Homa are tied for 43rd at six under.

Reigning champions Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay were disappointing, two strokes outside of the cut-line at five under, but they will hope to claw their way back into things when the format switches to alternate shot foursomes on Friday.

Boston Celtics reserve Malcolm Brogdon has been named NBA Sixth Man of the Year for his stellar first season with his new team.

Brogdon, 30, was traded to the Celtics from the Indiana Pacers in July for a 2023 first-round draft pick and a combination of smaller contract for matching salary, and it has proved a shrewd move.

The 2017 Rookie of the Year had put together a rare 50-40-90 shooting season in 2018-19 to earn a big free agent deal with the Pacers, and he returned to his sharpshooting best coming off the bench in Boston.

Registering zero starts from his 67 regular season appearances, Brogdon averaged 14.9 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists in his 26.0 minutes per game, while shooting 48.4 per cent from the field, 44.4 per cent from three-point range and 87.0 per cent from the free throw line.

Among players to play at least 20 games this season while averaging at least four three-point attempts per contest, Brogdon's 44.4 per cent clip is the third-highest in the league, trailing only Memphis Grizzlies sniper Luke Kennard (49.4) and Brogdon's Boston team-mate Al Horford (44.6).

His main competition for the award was New York Knicks spark plug Immanuel Quickley, who incredibly finished with almost identical averages to Brogdon at 14.9 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists, and while he played 14 more games than the eventual winner, 21 of his outings came in the starting line-up.

Quickley's performances in the starting line-up boosted his figures considerably, playing 38.6 minutes in those fixtures and averaging 22.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.1 assists while shooting 46.9 per cent from the field, 40.1 per cent from deep and 84.6 per cent from the free throw line.

His late-season run as a starter likely cost Quickley some votes from voters who are stricter about their definition of a sixth man, as Brogdon received 60 of the 100 first-place votes, while Quickley scooped up 34. Milwaukee Bucks back-up big-man Bobby Portis finished third.

Jose Mourinho saluted Paulo Dybala after his late equaliser paved the way for Roma's dramatic extra-time victory over Feyenoord in the Europa League quarter-finals.

The Giallorossi set up a semi-final showdown with Bayer Leverkusen after coming from behind to defeat Feyenoord 4-2 on aggregate at Stadio Olimpico.

Trailing 1-0 from the first leg, Roma were on the brink of elimination after Igor Paixao's header cancelled out Leonardo Spinazzola's earlier strike.

But Dybala, who was introduced as a substitute after missing Sunday's victory over Udinese through injury, levelled the tie with a sharp turn and finish forcing extra time, in which further strikes from Stephan El Shaarawy and Lorenzo Pellegrini sealed the deal.

It was the former Juventus forward's 16th goal of the season and fourth in the Europa League – a tally only bettered by Marcus Rashford, Victor Boniface (both six) and Santiago Gimenez (five) – and his exploits drew praise from his head coach.

"My feeling is that he was seeking the joy, he had lost more than confidence," Mourinho told Sky Sport Italia. 

"He found it here. He has found a coach who understands him, a crowd that loves him and a space on the field in which to be a leader with his quality and personality.

"Dybala is a nice boy. He has the quality to play for the biggest clubs in the world, but he has found joy here.

"I gave him absolute freedom to come on tonight, and he could come off even two minutes later if he didn't feel up to it. But he played 30 minutes of extra time and 25 minutes regular, and he finished on a high."

Meanwhile, Dybala also paid tribute to Mourinho who, having guided Roma to the Europa Conference League title last season, is closing in on a sixth triumph in European competition. 

"I think everyone knows Mourinho, his history, what he's done in Europe and at every club he worked at, I think he won something," the forward added.

"His mentality fuels you. He knew the game could end up like this and pushed us to give something more. He changed the tactical system, we started playing better and dominated extra time for a deserved victory.

"I think we all want to win, which is the most important thing. We have a coach with an incredible mentality. He told us the game would be like that, and he was absolutely right.

"This squad won the Europa Conference League last season, so they know what it takes to win. Now, we hope to go all the way in the Europa League too."

Massimiliano Allegri called on Juventus to become more ruthless despite the Bianconeri reaching the Europa League last four with a 1-1 draw at Sporting CP.

Juve took a slender 1-0 lead into the second leg at the Estadio Jose Alvalade after Federico Gatti's goal gave them victory in last week's reverse fixture at Allianz Stadium.

After learning prior to Thursday's match that their 15-point deduction in Serie A for financial breaches had been suspended, an early Adrien Rabiot goal doubled Juve's lead in the tie, and though Marcus Edwards pulled a goal back for Sporting, the visitors held on to set up a semi-final clash with Sevilla.

Despite earning a last-four spot in Europe for the first time since 2017, Allegri warned his players they must be more clinical in future after spurning a number of chances to kill the tie off in the second half.

"It was a good day, as we headed to the semi-finals," the Juve coach told Sky Sport Italia. "We suffered, we did good things in the second half at the beginning.

"But we have to do better when it comes to our chances. We rushed the play in the box and more patience would have been needed. We shot little from outside the box and we must improve.

"We knew it would be difficult, but we are bringing home a good result."

Standing between Allegri's men and the final in Budapest on May 31 is Sevilla, whose six Europa League six titles are double any other team's trophy haul in the competition.

Sevilla beat Manchester United 5-2 on aggregate to seal their semi-final place but Allegri says he had predicted such a result.

"I expected Sevilla to be honest," he said of his next European opponents. "They are a tricky team, they play well and are good with the ball.

"They have won so many Europa Leagues, so they definitely have an advantage. The signs from the last game [in Manchester] were in their favour, I had that feeling."

Rabiot's close-range strike after nine minutes in Portugal gave Juve a crucial two-goal lead and capped a strong performance in midfield, one that saw him lead the Bianconeri in passes in the final third (15) and contribute defensively with three clearances and an interception.

Despite his impressive display, Allegri still believes Rabiot has parts of his game to work on, saying: "He has the qualities but he can still improve.

"Sometimes he gets close to the area and doesn't shoot. He has to improve but he has become important, extraordinary."

Erik ten Hag criticised Manchester United's "passion, desire and willingness" following their Europa League quarter-final exit at the hands of Sevilla.

United, who scored two late own goals in last week's first leg to leave the tie all square at 2-2, produced another desperate defensive display as they went down 5-2 on aggregate at Roman Sanchez Pizjuan.

Once again, Ten Hag's side gifted Sevilla two goals with Youssef En-Nesyri helping himself to a brace after errors from Harry Maguire and David de Gea.

United were without several key players, including the suspended Bruno Fernandes and the injured Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane, but Ten Hag insisted that was no excuse for the visitors' display.

"We have to do better, that's the demand. We were not composed, not calm," he told BT Sport. "We didn't beat the press; when you do, there are so many spaces behind, and it was obvious at the start how to do it.

"We lost the battles, they had more passion, more desire, more willingness. That's difficult to win games.

"It's about the players on the pitch. They have to perform, I believe in them and trust them, but they have to show it, and they were not good enough.

"We have shown on so many occasions good things, but tonight we weren't ready for the game. At this level, playing for Manchester United, you have to be ready for every game.

"This was a great opportunity, a great occasion, to win something, and we gave it away – we have to blame ourselves.

"It's gone, we can't change it. We have to look forward to Sunday [against Brighton and Hove Albion in the FA Cup semi-finals], that's the next opportunity."

Christian Eriksen also accepted United were not at the races as they squandered the opportunity to return to the semi-finals for the third time in four seasons.

"A lot of things happened. We didn't really give them a game from the first minute, and we gave them a lot of opportunities to finish us off," the midfielder said.

"We lost a bit of our coolness, we made more mistakes than we usually do, and the whole team could not catch up with mistakes our team-mates made.

"If you give away goals like we did, you lose, it's nothing to do with the atmosphere. Our own game was not strong enough. It's football, sometimes you have good days, sometimes you have bad days, and it was a bad day. 

"Every football player makes mistakes, they punished us straight away. It's how we bounce back, and today we were not strong enough to bounce back from the mistakes."

Stephan El Shaarawy and Lorenzo Pellegrini scored in extra time as Roma battled into the Europa League last four after a 4-1 win over Feyenoord secured a 4-2 aggregate victory.

Leonardo Spinazzola's second-half goal on Thursday cancelled out Mats Wieffer's first-leg winner, only for Igor Paixao's header to put Feyenoord on the brink of the semi-finals with 10 minutes remaining.

Yet Paulo Dybala levelled the tie in the 89th minute with a sharp turn and finish to set the stage for an extra-time period Roma dominated to set up a two-legged meeting with Bayer Leverkusen in the semis.

El Shaarawy prodded Tammy Abraham's low cross past Justin Bijlow to edge the Giallorossi ahead, before Pellegrini – who hit the post when the game was still goalless – lashed home a clinching goal awarded after a VAR review overturned an original offside decision.

That was the end of the scoring, but the VAR was involved again before the final whistle.

Anthony Taylor was sent to the touchline monitor and subsequently dismissed Santiago Gimenez for a rash lunge on Gianluca Mancini, with Feyenoord exiting the competition in frustrating fashion.

Bayer Leverkusen waltzed into the Europa League semi-finals with a 4-1 defeat of Union Saint-Gilloise, sealing a 5-2 win on aggregate.

Xavi Alonso's Leverkusen went into Thursday's quarter-final second leg without a win in their past three visits to Belgium in European matches, but the Bundesliga side got the job done.

Moussa Diaby's coolly taken goal settled their nerves in the second minute, with Mitchel Bakker drilling in from close range to double the visitors' lead before half-time.

Bakker played a key role in Leverkusen's third, pressuring Union goalkeeper Anthony Moris into a dreadful clearance which was turned into an empty net by Jeremie Frimpong following what had been a bright start to the second half from the hosts.

Union got their reward for a spirited response when Casper Terho pulled one back with a deflected strike, but it proved to be only a consolation, with Adam Hlozek on hand to add further gloss to Leverkusen's win late on.

Leverkusen are into their first European semi-final since making the last four of the Champions League in 2002.

Manchester United again gifted Sevilla two goals as they crashed out of the Europa League following a 3-0 defeat in the away leg of their quarter-final.

Two late own goals at Old Trafford had seen Thursday's match at Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan kick off with the tie all square at 2-2.

And another desperate defensive display saw United eliminated, with Youssef En-Nesyri helping himself to a brace after errors from Harry Maguire and David de Gea.

Loic Bade was also on target as Sevilla cruised through courtesy of a 5-2 aggregate success, with Juventus next in the semi-finals.

United had been quick out of the blocks at home last week, but they contributed to their own early downfall this time as Sevilla broke through in the eighth minute.

De Gea fed the ball into Maguire, who was quickly surrounded by three attackers on the edge of the penalty area and saw his attempted pass intercepted by Erik Lamela before En-Nesyri calmly slotted home.

Sevilla continued to pose the greater threat, and the VAR came to United's rescue five minutes before the break when Marcos Acuna strayed offside before Lucas Ocampos brilliantly fired past De Gea.

It was only a temporary reprieve as Ivan Rakitic's corner looped up off Bade's shoulder and over De Gea at the start of the second half.

Ocampos somehow failed to add a third in a goalmouth scramble, allowing United to attempt their own two-goal comeback as Casemiro and Christian Eriksen went close.

But any hopes of a United recovery were ended nine minutes from time when De Gea raced out of his box and failed to make clean contact with a clearance, giving En-Nesyri the opportunity to curl his shot around the stranded goalkeeper.

Juventus reached the Europa League semi-finals as a 1-1 draw against Sporting CP at Estadio Jose Alvalade sealed a 2-1 aggregate triumph.

Buoyed by learning prior to Thursday's second leg that their 15-point deduction in Serie A for financial breaches had been suspended, Adrien Rabiot struck early on to double Juve's lead in the tie after Federico Gatti had given them a slender advantage in last week's reverse fixture at Allianz Stadium.

Marcus Edwards quickly pulled one back for Sporting from the penalty spot after Rabiot's foul on Manuel Ugarte, but resilient defending saw the Bianconeri through.

Juve will feature in a European semi-final for the first time since the 2016-17 campaign and will do battle with Sevilla for a place in the final after they knocked Manchester United out.

Juve took the lead after only nine minutes as Rabiot was first to a loose ball in the box from a corner and lashed into the bottom left-corner.

Sporting were offered a way back into the tie when Rabiot brought down Ugarte in the area, with referee Francois Letexier pointing to the spot and Edwards firing the ball straight down the middle as Wojciech Szczesny dived to his left.

The hosts nearly drew level on aggregate when Ousmane Diomande nodded just wide before half-time, and they nearly fell further behind after the interval when Dusan Vlahovic failed to get his header on target.

Sporting pressed for a goal that would force the game into extra-time and nearly found one when Ricardo Esgaio blazed just over the crossbar, but Massimiliano Allegri's men held on to reach the last four.

Carlos Alcaraz moved into the quarter-finals of the Barcelona Open with a straight-sets defeat of Roberto Bautista Agut, but it was a miserable Thursday for Alexander Zverev on home soil.

Defending champion Alcaraz won an all-Spanish contest with Bautista Agut 6-3 7-5 on Pista Rafa Nadal.

Top seed Alcaraz will face another compatriot in the form of Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who saw off Emil Ruusuvuori, for a place in the last four in his homeland.

Eyeing a third title of the year, 19-year-old US Open champion Alcaraz was a break down at 3-2 in the opening set before winning six games in a row to take the opener.

Bautista Agut broke the teenager's serve twice midway through the second set, but the favourite reeled off nine points in a row to seal victory in an hour and 54 minutes.

Second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Denis Shapovalov 6-3 6-2, and Jannik Sinner, the fourth seed, battled past Yoshihito Nishioka 6-1 4-6 6-3, but Casper Ruud was beaten by Francisco Cerundolo in straight sets.

Lorenzo Musetti and Dan Evans advanced at the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona-1899 along with Alex de Minaur, who went through with a walkover as Grigor Dimitrov withdrew due to injury.

Meanwhile, there will be no third BMW Open title for Zverev in Munich this week after he suffered a shock loss at the hands of world number 82 Christopher O'Connell.

Australian O'Connell saw off the third seed 7-6 (7-2) 6-4, while defending champion and top seed Holger Rune ousted Yannick Hanfmann 6-3 6-4, and Taylor Fritz got past Marton Fucsovics in three sets.

Lorenzo Sonego was another seed who bowed out, Cristian Garin beating the Italian 6-3 7-6 (7-3).

Iga Swiatek is through to the quarter-finals of the Stuttgart Open after easing to a 6-1 6-4 win over Zheng Qinwen on her return from a rib injury.

Swiatek had not played since sustaining the issue in the semi-finals of Indian Wells over a month ago, but advanced on Thursday despite stating that she felt "rusty".

The world number one won 84 per cent of points after landing her first serve in as she made up for lost time.

Swiatek also forced eight break points, winning four of them as she took just and hour and 26 minutes to set up a quarter-final with Karolina Pliskova, who bested Donna Vekic in a thriller.

Pliskova looked to be on her way to a routine win as she claimed the first set 6-2, only for the Croatian to take the second via a tie-break.

The decider also went the distance, with Pliskova able to finally put Vekic away 6-2 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (7-5) to book her clash with Swiatek.

Coco Gauff perhaps paid the price for taking almost three hours to beat Veronika Kudermetova on Wednesday, as the fifth seed fell to a straight-sets loss to Anastasia Potapova on Thursday, going down 6-2 6-3.

Fourth seed Caroline Garcia will go up against Potapova next after she defeated Tatjana Maria 7-6 (7-5) 6-4, while Paula Badosa had few problems seeing off fellow Spaniard Cristina Bucsa 6-1 6-2 and will face second seed Aryna Sabalenka in the last eight.