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As ever with these situations, Manchester United can draw a positive out of a negative.

They felt earlier this week it was coming towards the end game in their pursuit of Delap, and it was between them and Chelsea. Now they know they have lost out.

The positive is, with the decision made, they can move on. That is in stark contrast to 2022, when then manager Erik ten Hag delayed for months in an ultimately fruitless attempt to sign Frenkie de Jong and United ended up panicking at the end of the transfer window and spent £150m on Casemiro and Antony.

But that does not answer the pertinent question: who do they try for now?

Delap fitted their template of an improving, hungry young player, with scope to reach a high standard – at a set fee.

Rasmus Hojlund – who is four days younger than Delap – fitted the same criteria, apart from the last one. And it has not worked out.

Nothing I have seen on their post-season trip to Asia makes me feel United have the answer to their goalscoring issues within the club. In fact, it is quite the opposite.

The ‘safe’ but expensive options are Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo and Crystal Palace’s Jean-Philippe Mateta. But Mateta is 27 and Mbeumo will be at the Africa Cup of Nations for a month with Cameroon.

After that, it is a risk.

Former United striker Danny Welbeck scored 10 goals in the Premier League at the age of 34. Is there any merit in bringing him back and taking some of the pressure off Hojlund – or has Ruben Amorim concluded the 22-year-old Denmark international will never be good enough?

If so, it is back to Europe to sign another promising forward with no guarantee it will work.

The NCAA Division I college baseball playoffs begin this week, and there are several graduates from Southern California high schools representing in the college ranks.

Freshman Dylan Volantis of Texas, a Westlake High graduate, has had an All-American season, going 4-1 with a 1.99 ERA and 12 saves as a closer in the SEC.

Freshman shortstop Nate Castellon, a Calabasas grad, helped Cal Poly win the Big West tournament. He’s batting .364.

Collin Clarke (Santa Margarita) is 5-2 with a 4.59 ERA for Oregon. Trent Caraway (JSerra) has 33 RBIs for Oregon State. Colin Yeaman (Saugus) is batting .342 with 13 home runs and 55 RBIs for UC Irvine. Aiden Taurek (Foothill) is batting .336 with 10 home runs and 45 RBIs for St. Mary’s.

Derek Curiel (Orange Lutheran) is the No. 2 hitter for LSU with a .336 average and 45 RBIs. Aidan Cremarosa, who once played for Burbank Burroughs until enrolling at IMG Academy, is 6-5 with a 4.13 ERA for Fresno State.

Dean Curley (Northview) is batting .313 with 12 home runs for Tennessee. Jimmy De Anda (Mater Dei) has a .281 average for Utah Valley.

For USC, Ethan Hedges (Mater Dei) leads the team with a .343 average and has nine saves. For UCLA, freshman Easton Hawk (Granada Hills) has been a late-season closer with five saves.

The Call brothers, Chase and Phoenix, play for UC Irvine and UCLA, respectively, and could face off in the Westwood regional.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].

Before the start of the season, Dodgers first base and infield coach Chris Woodward pulled Mookie Betts aside one day, and had him envision the ultimate end result.

“You’re gonna be standing at shortstop when we win the World Series,” Woodward told Betts, the former Gold Glove right fielder in the midst of an almost unprecedented mid-career position switch. “That’s what the goal is.”

Two months into the season, the Dodgers believe he’s checking the requisite boxes on the path toward getting there.

“I would say, right now he’s playing above-average shortstop, Major League shortstop,” manager Dave Roberts said this week. “Which is amazing, considering he just took this position up.”

Betts has not only returned to shortstop this season after his unconvincing three-month stint at the position last year; but he has progressed so much that, unlike when he was moved back to right field for the stretch run of last fall’s championship march, the Dodgers have no plans for a similar late-season switch this time around.

“I don’t see us making a change [like] we did last year. I don’t see that happening,” Roberts said. “He’s a major league shortstop, on a championship club.”

“And,” the manager also added, “he’s only getting better.”

It means that now, Betts’ challenge has gone from proving he belongs at shortstop to proving he can master it by the end of the season. The goal Woodward laid out at the beginning of the year has suddenly become much more realistic now. And over the next four months, Betts’ ability to polish his shortstop play looms as one of the Dodgers’ biggest X-factors.

“Getting to that, even when he’s as good as he is now, there’s still a lot to learn,” Woodward said. “He’s done good up to this point. So how do we maintain that [progress]?”

In Year 1 of playing shortstop on a full-time basis last season, Betts’ initial experience was marked by trial and (mostly) error. He struggled to make accurate throws across the diamond. He lacked the instincts and confidence to cleanly field even many routine grounders. In his three-month cameo in the role — one cut short by a midseason broken hand — he committed nine errors and ranked below-league-average in several advanced metrics.

“Last year,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said when reflecting on Betts’ initial foray to the shortstop position, “it was like a crash course.”

In Year 2, on the other hand, Betts has graduated to something of a finishing school.

Unlike last year, when the former MVP slugger switched positions just weeks before opening day, Betts had the entire offseason to prepare his game. Over the winter, he improved the technique of his glovework while fielding balls. He trained on how to throw from lower arm slots than he had in the outfield. He focused on keeping a wider and more athletic base in order to adapt to funny hops and unexpected spins. He established a base of fundamentals that, last year, he simply didn’t have; providing renewed confidence and consistency he’s been able to lean on all season.

“Preparation,” Betts said recently about the biggest difference in his shortstop play this year. “[I have been able] to prepare, have an idea of what I’m doing, instead of just hoping that athleticism wins. At this level, it doesn’t work like that. So you have to have an idea of what you’re doing. And I work hard every day. I’m out there every day early. Doing what I can to be successful.”

Such strides have been illustrated in Betts’ defensive numbers. He currently ranks seventh among qualified MLB shortstops in fielding percentage, his three errors to this point tied for the fewest among those who have made at least 50 starts. His advanced metrics are equally encouraging, ranking top-five in outs above average and defensive runs saved.

“He looks like a major league shortstop right now,” Roberts said, “where last year there were many times I didn’t feel that way.”

A finished product, however, Betts is still not.

There are subtle intricacies he has yet to fully grasp, such as where to position on relay throws from the outfield. There are infrequent, higher-difficulty plays he’s yet to learn how to handle.

One important teaching moment came early in the season, when Betts’ inability to corral a hard hooking one-hopper in a game against the Washington Nationals led to him and the coaching staff adding more unpredictable fungo-bat fielding drills into his daily pregame routine.

“It just kind of prompted a conversation of, ‘You’re gonna get different types of balls, and those are pretty rare. But what’s the process of catching that ball? And what do we need to practice?’” Woodward recalled, leading to changes that were enacted the next day.

“The drills we do now, I don’t know if anybody else can make them look as easy as he now does,” Woodward added. “When he first started, you could tell, ‘Oh man, it’s uncomfortable.’ But now, I smoke balls at him … and he’s just so under control.”

Another moment of frustration came last Sunday in New York, when Betts athletically snared a bouncing ball on his forehand up the middle … but then airmailed a backhanded, off-balance flip throw to second base while trying to turn a potential double play.

Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts throws to first base during Monday’s game against the Cleveland Guardians.

(David Dermer / Associated Press)

“That was the first time ever in my life I’ve had to do that,” Betts said days later, prompting him to seek out more advice from Woodward and veteran shortstop teammate Miguel Rojas. “Miggy was telling me I can’t stress about it, because he got to mess that play up in high-A [when he was first learning the position]. Woody told me he got to mess that play up in double-A. I’m messing this play up for the first time ever in my life — in the big leagues.”

For Betts, it can be a frustrating dynamic, having to endorse inevitable such struggles as he seeks his desired defensive progress.

“I definitely feel I’ve grown a lot, just from the routine perspective,” he said. “But I don’t want to hurt the team, man.”

Which is why, in the days immediately afterward, he then incorporated underhand flip drills into his pregame work as well.

“You’re going to have to go through those moments to learn, to understand,” said Rojas, who has been a sounding board for Betts since last year’s initial position switch. “I don’t consider that an error. I consider it a mistake that you’re gonna learn from. Because that play is gonna happen again.”

“It’s like life in general. It’s about learning from your mistakes,” Freeman echoed. “And not that that [flip play] was a mistake. But it’s like, ‘Now I know how to adjust off of that.’ If he was not even trying to attempt things, then you’ll never know what you can really achieve out there. I think he’s learning his limits of what he can do. And I think that’s the key to it.”

Such moments, of course, also underscore the inherent risk of entrusting Betts (who still has only 132 career MLB games at shortstop) with perhaps the sport’s most challenging position.

It’s one thing for such a blunder to happen in a forgettable late May contest. It’d be far less forgiving if they were to continue popping up in important games down the stretch.

There’s also a question about whether Betts’ focus on shortstop has started to have an impact on his bat, with the 32-year-old hitting just .254 on the season while suffering incremental dips in his underlying contact metrics.

The root of those struggles, Betts believes, stems more from bad habits he developed while recovering from a stomach virus at the start of the season that saw him lose almost 20 pounds. Then again, even though he has been able to better moderate his daily pregame workload compared with the hours he’d spend every day fielding grounders last season, he is still “learning a whole new position at the big-league level,” Freeman noted, “and all his focus has been on that.”

It all creates a relatively tight needle for Betts and the Dodgers to thread the rest of the year. Betts not only has to make continued strides on defense (and prove, at a bare minimum, he won’t be a downgrade from the team’s other in-house options, such as Rojas or Tommy Edman), but, he also needs to get his swing back in a place to be an impact presence at the top of the lineup.

“It’s a lot to take on, to be a shortstop in the big leagues,” Freeman said. “But once he gets everything under control, I think that’s when the hitting will pick right back up.”

It figures to be an ongoing process, one that could have season-defining implications for the Dodgers’ World Series title defense.

Still, in the span of two months, Betts has shown enough with his glove for the Dodgers not to move him — making what started as a seemingly dubious experiment into a potentially permanent solution.

“People around baseball should be paying a little more attention to the way he’s been playing short,” Rojas said.

“He’s had a lot of different plays that he’s been able to kind of see in games,” added Roberts. “He’s a guy that loves a challenge, and he’s really realized that challenge and keeps getting better each night.”

When one competition becomes your season’s lodestar, all else on offer will feel diminished.

Prop Andrew Porter made as much clear in a 2023 interview that pops up again and again on social media after Leinster’s European defeats.

“You don’t see many URC or Pro14s or whatever you have on the jersey. You see those stars that are on the jersey,” he said in 2023 before the second of those finals against La Rochelle.

Yet, there is a sense that this year the domestic bread and butter has taken on a greater significance this year.

After a run of four straight titles between 2018 and 2021, Leinster have not won any of the last three, a time period that encompasses the inclusion of South African sides Bulls, Sharks, Stormers and Lions in the competition.

Forwards coach Robin McBryde said it would represent “a step in the right direction” and it will not have gone unnoticed that this particular piece of silverware has also proved to be elusive of late.

While plenty of their squad have enjoyed successes with Ireland, after three seasons, there would be value simply in the act of winning silverware again.

“For Ireland we have been able to do that in recent years, but we haven’t been able to transfer that with Leinster,” said Lowe.

“It doesn’t mean that because you have won with Ireland you are going to win with Leinster.

“You still have to come back here and perform on the biggest of days and under the most amount of pressure. That’s what we want to do.”

OKLAHOMA CITY — Jessica Clements hit a walk-off, two-run home run in the seventh inning early Friday morning to carry ninth-seeded UCLA past No. 16 Oregon 4-2 at the Women’s College World Series, after the Ducks tied the game in the top of the inning on a call at home plate that was overturned.

Catcher Alexis Ramirez also hit a two-run homer in support of Bruins’ starter Kaitlyn Terry, who pitched a four-hitter and gave up one earned run. UCLA (55-11) will play No. 12 seed Texas Tech on Saturday at 4 p.m. (PDT) for a spot in the semifinals. Oregon (53-9) will face unseeded Mississippi in Friday’s elimination game.

Oregon’s Paige Sinicki doubled inside the third-base line to lead off the seventh, but the ruling was challenged by UCLA. The call was upheld, but the next hitter, Dezianna Patmon bunted Sinicki to third with one out. Emma Cox followed with a ground ball to third baseman Jordan Woolery, who tried to throw Sinicki out at home. The throw to Ramirez was on time and Sinicki was ruled out at home for the second out.

Oregon challenged the call, and it was overturned after a video review showed obstruction by Ramirez.

Oregon led 1-0 in the fourth inning when Ramirez hit a two-out pitch from starter Lyndsey Grein over the left-field wall to give UCLA a 2-1 lead. It was the first runs the Bruins had scored against Grein in four games this season. The Ducks took two of three from UCLA in April.

After Woolery singled and Megan Grant walked to open the sixth, Grein was pulled in favor of Elise Sokolsky, who retired the next two batters.

Lightning and rain resulted in a 75-minute delay, and two brief power outages lasting less than a minute each, turned Devon Park dark in the first inning.

UCLA’s Jessica Clements hits a walk-off home run against Oregon at the Women’s College World Series.

(Ross Turteltaub / UCLA Athletics)

Oregon scored first against Terry in the third inning. Kaylynn Jones led with an infield single before a bunt by Katie Flannery. Jones took third on a ground out by Kai Luschar. Her sister, Kedre Luschar, then drove in Jones on a single to right field.

The Bruins nearly answered in their half of the inning when Savannah Pola drove a pitch from Grein 220 feet to the base of the center-field wall that was hauled in by Kedre Luschar to end the inning.

Football experts Nedum Onuoha, Julien Laurens and Nicky Bandini build a combined Inter Milan and Paris St-Germain team before the teams meet in Saturday’s Champions League final.

Ousmane Dembele, Lautaro Martinez, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia or Marcus Thuram? The panel discuss the options available to fill the places in attack.

Watch their full selections across defence, midfield, attack and in goal on BBC iPlayer

Many Southland sprinters will bring their own heat to the CIF State track and field championships at Buchanan High in Clovis where 100-plus temperatures are forecast for Friday and Saturday.

The absence of last spring’s 100- and 200-meter dash winner Brandon Arrington, whose leg injury in a league meet May 9 forced him to miss the San Diego Section finals and denies him an opportunity to defend his state titles, opens lanes for the fastest athletes in the City and Southern Sections to take advantage. A junior from Mt. Miguel, Arrington broke the San Diego County record (20.35) in the 200 at Arcadia in April and one week later set a section record (10.21) in the 100 at Mt. SAC.

The favorite in the 100 is Concord De La Salle junior Jaden Jefferson, who enters with the best qualifying time (10.30, three-hundredths of a second better than Arrington’s winning time last year), but challenging him will be Antrell Harris of Birmingham (who clocked 10.92 to win the City title May 22), back-to-back Masters Meet winner Demare Dezeurn of Bishop Alemany (10.35), RJ Sermons of Rancho Cucamonga (10.47) and Servite’s trio of Benjamin Harris (10.44), Robert Gardner (10.59) and Jorden Wells (10.63).

Senior Antrell Harris, center, of Birmingham was first in the 100 and 200 meters at the City Section finals May 22 in Lake Balboa.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

In the 200, Masters champion Sermons (20.97) will be in the first heat along with Temecula Valley’s Jack Stadlman (21.24), Dezeurn (21.04) has the fastest qualifying time in the second heat, Servite’s Jace Wells (21.05) and Newbury Park’s Jaden Griffin (21.36) are in the third heat, and joining Jefferson (21.11) in the last heat are Santa Margarita’s Leo Francis (21.14) and Harris (21.66).

Sermons, who announced the day before the Masters Meet that he will skip his senior year of high school to play football at USC, clocked a career-best 20.88 at the Baseline League finals and will try to beat Arrington’s winning time of 20.55 last year.

Servite freshman Jaelen Hunter (46.91) heads a talented group in the 400, which includes Stadlman (47.91), City champion Justin Hart from Granada Hills (47.45) and City runner-up Nathan Santacruz of Venice (47.48). Servite’s 4×100 relay was first at the Masters in 40.40 followed by Sherman Oaks Notre Dame (40.77), which will be in the same heat Friday as JSerra (41.44) and City champion Granada Hills (41.78), and Murrieta Valley (41.55) will be in Heat 4 with Birmingham (41.80).

Servite also has one of the faster foursomes in the 4×400 as the Friars figure to challenge for the team title, won last year by Long Beach Poly, which won the Masters race Saturday in 3:10.83. The loaded field also features Cathedral (3:12.20), Mira Costa (3:18.73), Long Beach Wilson (3:14.93), Culver City (3:14.80) and Granada Hills (3:24.15).

For the girls, Redondo Union’s Journey Cole and Chaparral’s Keelan Wright are in separate heats, but should they advance they would go head-to-head in the finals in a rematch of last week’s epic 100-meter showdown (Cole prevailed by five-hundredths of a second in 11.36). However, not to be underestimated are Malia Rainey (11.57) and Marley Scoggins (11.60) from Calabasas (11.57) and Carson’s Christina Gray, who ran 12.05 to win the City title.

Wright (23.21) is the leading qualifier in the 200. Other contenders are Rosary’s Justine Wilson (23.38), Scoggins (23.59) and Gray (24.62).

Long Beach Poly carried the baton around the oval in 45.94 at Masters to avenge its loss to Oaks Christian at last year’s state 4×100 final, and the two schools could match up again Saturday alongside City winner Carson (46.84), which was third in Clovis last year. Long Beach Wilson, the state team champion in 2024, has the top qualifying time (3:43.71) in the 4×400 relay.

In the distance events, Corona Santiago boasts two title contenders — Braelyn Combe in the 1,600 and Rylee Blade in the 3,200. Combe was second to Ventura’s Sadie Englehardt last year and won the Masters four-lapper last week in 4:44.36 (more than two and a half seconds better than her winning time at the Southern Section Division 1 finals), second-best among all qualifiers behind Chiara Dailey (4:43.57) of La Jolla in San Diego.

Blade ran 9:58.46 two weeks ago to break a Southern Section record that had stood since 1996 and cruised to the Masters win in 10:11.38. The Florida State-bound senior was third at state last year in 10:06.26 and she set a meet standard of 15:20.3 at the Woodbridge Cross Country Classic in September.

USC-bound RJ Sermons of Rancho Cucamonga will try to double in the 100 and 200 meters at the CIF State Track & Field Championships.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Stanford signee Evan Noonan of Dana Hills, winner of the Southern Section and Masters races the past two weeks, will try to defend his 3,200 state title (he won in 8:43.12 as a junior).

Aliso Niguel’s Jaslene Massey and Sherman Oaks Notre Dame’s Aja Johnson have the first and second best throws in both shotput and discus. Massey swept the events at Masters (49-7.50 shotput; 165-06 discus). Johnson is the defending state discus champion and won the state shotput title in 2023.

In the boys high jump, Mission League rivals Matthew Browner from Chaminade and JJ Harel of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame both achieved 6-10 to finish first and second at Masters. Harel cleared that same height to take second at the state finals last year behind Birmingham’s Deshawn Banks.

Benfica winger Angel di Maria will return to his boyhood club Rosario Central – 10 months after death threats forced him to backtrack on the same move.

The 37-year-old began his career at Rosario in 2005 and the Argentine top-flight club announced his return on Thursday.

“Our history together has more pages to write. Welcome home,” the Rosario-based club said alongside a video posted on X.

The 2022 World Cup winner spent two seasons with Rosario before moving to Europe with Benfica.

He went on to play more than 700 games in Europe for Benfica, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Paris St-Germain and Juventus.

Di Maria was close to rejoining Rosario as a free agent last summer but increasing drug-related violence in the region and a number of threats against him and his family ended his plans.

Speaking last July, Di Maria said: “There was a threat at my sister’s business, a box with a pig’s head and a bullet in the forehead, and a note that said that if I returned to [Rosario] Central, the next head was that of my daughter Pia.

“Those months were horrible. We could only sit there and cry each night over not being able to carry out that dream return.”

Di Maria has won 30 trophies in Europe – including league titles in three countries and the 2013-14 Champions League with Real – as well as the World Cup and two Copa America trophies with Argentina.

He rejoined Benfica for a second spell in 2023 and will leave the club after next month’s Club World Cup campaign in the United States.

Charlie Woods has taken a big first step out of his father’s immense shadow in the golfing world.

The 16-year-old son of golf legend Tiger Woods made a huge statement this week by winning the American Junior Golf Association’s Team TaylorMade Invitational at Streamsong Resort in Bowling Green, Fla. He shot a 15-under-par 201 (70-65-66) to finish three shots ahead of a trio of players tied for second place.

“Being able to say to myself that I’ve won in an absolutely amazing event and to say I preformed under some high, high pressure situations is just huge going forward,” Charlie Woods said afterward, “because I haven’t been able to say that I have done that. And now that I can, it is just a big thing for my mental game going forward.”

Currently ranked as the No. 609 boys junior player in the U.S., Woods is expected to move into the top 20 next week, after topping a 71-player field that featured four golfers who currently rank in the AJGA’s top five. That includes top-ranked Miles Russell of Jacksonville Beach, Fla., who finished six shots behind Woods and in seventh place with a nine-under 207.

Playing in his first AJGA invitational, Woods finished the event with 26 birdies — the most ever at an AJGA Invitational, based on information available to the organization — to go with one eagle. He was tied for 14th place after Monday’s opening round but had pulled into a tie for second going into Wednesday’s final round.

“I didn’t look at the leaderboard once today,” said Woods, who gained fully exempt AJGA status with his victory.

A sophomore at Benjamin School in Palm Beach, Fla., Woods finished tied for 25th at the prestigious Junior Invitational at Sage Valley (a tournament that counts toward the AJGA rankings but is not an AJGA-sanctioned event) in March.

He and his father have competed in the parent-child PNC Championship every December since 2020. They finished as runners-up in 2021 and 2024, with Charlie Woods notching his first hole-in-one at the most recent event.

Al-Nassr want to sign Liverpool’s Luis Diaz, Bayern Munich remain confident of signing Florian Wirtz, Chelsea could turn Jadon Sancho’s loan move from Manchester United into a permanent deal.

Liverpool’s Luis Diaz, 28, is wanted by Saudi Pro League side Al-Nassr, who are monitoring the Colombia winger’s contract situation at Anfield. (Telegraph – subscription required), external

Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich are still confident of persuading Bayer Leverkusen attacker Florian Wirtz, 22, to join them this summer – and not Liverpool. (SZ, in German), external

Chelsea have been impressed by Jadon Sancho’s recent performances and could trigger their £25m obligation to buy clause with Manchester United to sign the 25-year-old English winger on a permanent deal. (i Sport), external

Brentford are in talks with Liverpool over a deal to sign 26-year-old Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher. (Sky Germany), external

Liverpool want more than £20m for Kelleher. (Athletic – subscription required), external

Napoli are closing in on agreeing personal terms with Lille’s 25-year-old Canada forward Jonathan David, who has also been contacted by Juventus. (Sky Sports), external

Chelsea have joined Juventus in making a formal enquiry with Sporting Lisbon over the availability of 26-year-old Sweden striker Viktor Gyokeres, who is also wanted by Arsenal. (Record – in Portuguese), external

Juventus are interested in signing Real Madrid’s 18-year-old Brazil forward Endrick on loan. (Calciomercato – in Italian), external

Former Juve manager Massimiliano Allegri is set for a return to AC Milan as manager. The 57-year-old spent four years at the San Siro between 2010 and 2014. (Calciomercato), external

Ipswich Town have offered Chelsea’s 19-year-old Spanish forward Marc Guiu a loan deal in the Championship next season. (Fabrizio Romano), external

Two years ago, Alexis Díaz was an All-Star closer with the Cincinnati Reds.

Now, the 28-year-old right-hander is set to become a Dodgers reclamation project.

Amid a wave of early-season injuries to their bullpen and rotation, the Dodgers agreed to acquire Díaz from the Reds on Thursday, the team announced.

Díaz, who was demoted to triple-A earlier this month by the Reds, won’t be joining the Dodgers’ big-league roster right away. He will instead report to Arizona to work with the Dodgers’ pitching group there.

To make room on the 40-man roster, the Dodgers transferred injured reliever Evan Phillips (who was initially expected to only miss 15 days with a forearm injury) to the 60-day IL.

Once a rising relief star who had a 1.84 ERA as a rookie in 2022, and 37 saves and a 3.07 earned-run average as an All-Star selection in 2023, Díaz has faded over the past two seasons.

In 2024, he was 28 of 32 in save opportunities, but posted a 3.99 ERA with 31 walks in 56 1/3 innings.

This season, he lost the closer’s job while battling a hamstring injury that sidelined him for the start of the season, then was optioned to triple-A after giving up eight runs, eight hits, four homers and five walks in his first six appearances. Five of the runs, and three of the homers, came in a single outing against the St. Louis Cardinals on April 30, the day before he was sent down.

Díaz, the brother of New York Mets closer Edwin Díaz, hasn’t experienced much greater success in the minors, holding a 4.61 ERA with 12 walks in 13 2/3 innings with the Reds’ Louisville affiliate.

Still, just two years removed from the early heights of his MLB career, the Dodgers were willing to take a flier on the once-promising talent, only giving up minor-league pitcher Mike Villani (a 13th-round pick in last year’s draft) in return.

Legendary rocker and Indiana native John Mellencamp apologized Thursday “on behalf of most Hoosiers” for the “poor, poor sportsmanship” displayed during the Pacers’ home win over the New York Knicks in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals two days earlier.

Although the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer. did not call out any specific Indiana sports fan in the statement he posted to X hours before Game 5, Mellencamp seemed to have a particular person in mind — popular ESPN personality Pat McAfee.

“I was embarrassed when somebody, under whose direction I don’t know, called out some of the people who had made the trip from New York to support their team — and in turn, support our team,” the “Hurts So Good” singer wrote. “The audience booed these people. I’d say that was not Hoosier Hospitality. One could only say it’s poor, poor sportsmanship.”

Hours after Mellencamp posted his statement, McAfee reposted it on X and identified himself as the one who instigated Pacers fans to behave in such a manner.

“I am ‘somebody,’” McAfee wrote.

Mellencamp and McAfee were both on hand Tuesday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse as the Pacers defeated the Knicks 130-121 to take a 3-1 series lead. Addressing the crowd during a fourth-quarter timeout, McAfee called out celebrity Knicks fans Spike Lee, Ben Stiller and Timothée Chalamet — all of whom were in attendance that night — and encouraged Pacers fans to “send these sons of b— back to New York with their ears ringing!”

Stiller addressed the matter later that night on X, saying he assumed that McAfee was “playing around” and that all the fans he met at the arena were “awesome and incredibly cool.”

Mellencamp, however, was not happy with the shenanigans.

“I was not proud to be a Hoosier, and I’ve lived here my entire life,” the singer once known as Johnny Cougar wrote. “On behalf of most Hoosiers, I would like to apologize for our poor behavior. I’m sure the Pacers had nothing to do with this smackdown.”

Mellencamp’s use of the “smackdown” appears to be a thinly veiled reference to McAfee, who is a color commentator and occasional wrestler for WWE. “Friday Night SmackDown” is one of the organization’s signature TV shows.

It is unclear why Mellencamp opted to voice his displeasure so long after the incident occurred. Perhaps he plans to be in attendance Thursday night at Madison Square Garden as his Pacers attempt to seal their first trip to the NBA Finals since 2000.

One person who won’t be there is McAfee, despite a friendly invite from Stiller.

It has been a dreadful start to the season in the County Championship for Lancashire, who named former T20-winning captain Steven Croft as interim head coach, with no wins from their seven games.

Jennings had already resigned as red-ball captain and the club apologised to its members before Benkenstein’s exit.

Back in charge for the T20 Blast, Jennings brought up his 50 off 30 balls and put on 79 for the first wicket with Luke Wells.

But a brilliant catch in the deep from Ethan Brookes removed Jennings and halted Lancashire’s progress, and the hosts lost five wickets for 22 runs to keep the target to under nine runs an over.

When Kashif Ali smashed 39 off 21 balls, the Rapids were well over the required rate and on course for an away win.

But the loss of captain Brett D’Oliveira (30) and Adam Hose (13) to reduce Worcestershire to 93-4 after 10.1 overs changed the complexion of the game.

From there, Lancashire turned the screw and with the visitors needing 15 runs off the last over, Tom Aspinwall conceded just seven to deliver a morale-boosting first win of the season in any competition.

Tutu Atwell played quarterback. He played receiver, and he also played on defense.

Years before diminutive and speedy Atwell matured into an NFL prospect, the Rams receiver played flag football.

Could anybody stop him?

“Nah, nah,” Atwell said, chuckling.

So Atwell, a 2021 second-round draft pick who will earn $10 million this season, said he would be cool and fun if he got the opportunity in a few years to try out for the 2028 U.S. Olympic flag football team.

Atwell echoed the feelings of Minnesota Vikings star receiver Justin Jefferson and other players in the league since NFL owners last week approved a resolution that would allow them to try out for flag football. The resolution limits only one player per NFL team to play for each national team in the Los Angeles Games.

NFL players would compete for spots with others already playing flag football.

“It’s great,” Rams coach Sean McVay said. “If that’s something that players say they want to be able to do, then I think it’s a really cool experience for them to be able to be a part of while also acknowledging that, man, there are some other guys that have been doing it.

“I’m not going to pretend to understand the nuances tactically and what that game entails, but I think it’s good. I think it’s great.”

Current flag football players might feel otherwise about an influx of NFL talent.

“This is a sport that we’ve played for a long time, and we feel like we are the best at it and we don’t need other guys,” Darrell Doucette III, the quarterback for U.S. men’s teams that have won five consecutive world championships, recently told the Washington Post. “But we all have one goal in mind, and that’s to represent our country.

“We’re definitely open to all competition. If those guys come in and ball out and they’re better than us, hats off to them. Go win that gold medal for our country.”

Details regarding NFL players’ participation in the Olympics still must be worked out by the NFL, the NFL Players Assn., the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) and national governing bodies.

Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, one of the top passers in NFL history, grinned broadly when asked about playing flag football in the Olympics. Stafford would be 40.

“Sure,” he said, laughing. “I mean, nobody’s going to want me to, but yeah, sure. It’d be fun. I’ll coach.”

Etc.

The Rams signed offensive lineman David Quessenberry to a one-year contract, the team announced Thursday. Quessenberry appeared in 84 games with the Houston Texas (2017), Tennessee Titans (2018-21), Buffalo Bills (2022) and Minnesota Vikings (2023-24). The Encinitas, Calif., native was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma after being drafted in 2014 but underwent his last cancer treatment in 2017. He was the 2017 recipient of the George Halas Award, given by the Pro Football Writers of America to an NFL player, coach or staff member who succeeds in the face of adversity.

Jacob Fearnley moved into an all-British meeting with Cameron Norrie in the French Open third round after his opponent Ugo Humbert retired following a nasty fall.

Fearnley, who replaced Norrie as the British number two earlier this year, was leading 6-3 4-4 when French 22nd seed Humbert quit.

Humbert tumbled as he stretched for a return at 40-40 in the eighth game and instantly clutched his right leg.

After receiving treatment and wearing heavy strapping, Humbert gamely tried to continue and finished the game before deciding it would not be sensible to carry on.

As a result, 23-year-old Fearnley – who is 55th in the world after a rapid rise over the past 12 months – moved into the last 32 on his French Open debut.

Norrie booked his place earlier on Thursday with a 7-6 (9-7) 6-2 6-1 win over Argentine qualifier Federico Gomez.

The 29-year-old has slipped to 81st in the rankings, but has rediscovered his form on the clay and earned one of the most satisfying wins of his career when he beat former world number one Daniil Medvedev at Roland Garros earlier this week.

BUENOS AIRES — An Argentine court on Thursday declared a mistrial in the case of seven health professionals accused of negligence in the death of soccer legend Diego Maradona, the latest dramatic twist in a trial that has captivated the nation and the soccer world for more than two months.

The whiplash decision comes after one of the three judges overseeing the trial stepped down over criticism surrounding her participation in a forthcoming documentary about the case.

Her controversial withdrawal compelled the court to either appoint a new judge in her place or to retry the entire case from scratch.

On Thursday, the judges decided the latter, effectively turning the clock back on all proceedings in the case that accuses Maradona’s medical team of failing to provide adequate care for the soccer star in his final days.

The judges ruled there would be a new trial, without specifying when.

Julieta Makintach said that she had “no choice” but to resign from the case Tuesday after the prosecutor showed a teaser-trailer for a documentary, “Divine Justice,” which traces the aftermath of Maradona’s death at the age of 60 to the start of the trailer, clearly featuring Makintach as a main protagonist.

Maradona, who led Argentina to the World Cup title in 1986, died on Nov. 25, 2020, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, days after undergoing surgery for a hematoma that formed between his skull and brain.

In something of a grand gesture, Caleb Williams stood at a lectern Wednesday to explain that excerpts from an upcoming book were old news. A year after scheming to avoid playing for the Bears, he is committed to turning around the franchise.

Leaping from the USC campus to the top rung of the NFL draft a year ago, Williams aspired to be like John Elway and Eli Manning.

Just not in the way one might expect.

Sure, he wanted to lead a team to multiple Super Bowl titles like those two quarterbacks, whose career statistics were remarkably similar. Both played 16 years in the NFL for only one team — Elway with the Denver Broncos and Manning with the New York Giants — and both passed for 50,000 yards and 300 touchdowns.

But Williams, egged on by his father, is described in American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback by ESPN journalist Seth Wickersham as entertaining creative ways to spurn the team that held the No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft.

Just like Elway and Manning had done.

Elway proclaimed his refusal to play for the Baltimore Colts after they drafted him first overall in 1983, leading to a trade to the Broncos. Manning refused to play for the San Diego Chargers after being drafted first overall in 2004, forcing a trade to the Giants.

However, Williams was unsuccessful in his effort. The Bears drafted him and he pledged his allegiance to them while enduring a rocky rookie season in which he was sacked more than any other NFL quarterback and the team struggled to a 5-12 record.

Yet he felt compelled to hold a news conference at the Bears training camp in Lake Forest, Ill., to explain why he entertained thoughts of spurning Chicago and instead landing in, say, Minnesota. Williams admitted he and his parents discussed ways to dodge the Bears.

Williams couldn’t speak for his father. Carl Williams told Wickersham that “Chicago is the place quarterbacks go to die,” and consulted with Manning’s father, Archie, a former NFL quarterback who had helped strategize his son’s trade from the Chargers to the Giants.

But Williams made it clear he is all in with new Bears head coach Ben Johnson and the franchise’s commitment to turning around its fortunes. He said he changed his tune about Chicago after meeting with Bears brass ahead of last year’s draft.

“After I came on my visit here, it was a … deliberate and determined answer that I wanted to come here,” Williams said. “I wanted to be here. I love being here.”

“I wanted to come here and be the guy and be a part and be a reason why the Chicago Bears turn this thing around.”

“This thing” is a franchise that hasn’t posted a winning record since 2018 and whose all-time leading passer is the middling Jay Cutler. The Bears’ most renowned quarterback is Sid Luckman, who helped them win four NFL championships in the 1940s while passing for a paltry 14,686 yards in 11 seasons. They won one more pre-Super Bowl title, in 1963, and have won only one of the LIX (59) Super Bowls, in 1985.

No wonder Carl Williams was against his son — a Heisman Trophy winner at USC in 2022 — getting locked into what amounts to a five-year rookie contract with Chicago. That son, now a 23-year-old man, said he no longer responds unquestioningly to his father’s marching orders.

“I shut him down quite a bit,” Williams said. “He has ideas and he’s a smart man and so I listen. I always listen.

“I’m very fortunate to be in this position in the sense of playing quarterback, but also very fortunate to have a very strong-minded father. We talk very often, my mom and my dad are my best friends, so being able to have conversations with them to understand that everything they say is also portrayed on me.”

Wickersham’s book will be published in September. Another excerpt describes Williams as becoming enamored with the idea of playing for Minnesota Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell after they had a predraft meeting.

But the overriding theme of his four-minute opening statement at the news conference was that he is focused on becoming the best quarterback possible for the Chicago Bears. He’d prefer that everyone just forget that he had misgivings a year ago.

“We are here focused on the future,” he said, “we are here focused on the present and really trying to get this train going, picking up steam and choo-chooing along.”