Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow was removed after pitching one inning because of back spasms in the team’s 12-2 victory over the host Houston Astros on Wednesday.

Glasnow allowed a first-inning home run to Brice Matthews and attempted to return in the second. After several warmup pitches, Glasnow, 32, motioned for trainers, who along with manager Dave Roberts removed him from the game with what the Dodgers announced as low back pain. Jack Dreyer (2-1) replaced Glasnow and picked up the victory with two scoreless innings of relief.

“It’s just like a normal spasm that kind of just gives out,” the 6-foot-8 Glasnow said after the game. “I’ve gotten it since like high school, just being tall, I guess. I get it like a couple times a year. It was just a warm-up pitch and it gave out, and I tried to throw another one and it just was too hard to bend over.”

Glasnow’s first-inning strikeout of Yordan Alvarez was the 1,000th of his career. He is the fastest pitcher in major league history to reach the milestone at 793 innings.

“It’s great. It’s a cool accomplishment,” Glasnow said. “It would have been better if I didn’t get taken out of the game (before) the second (inning) … but I’ll be able to look back on it and have a nice feeling about it.”

Glasnow said he’s not worried about the back issue, saying it “doesn’t seem to feel too serious.” Roberts took similar tone.

“I don’t expect it to be an IL situation,” Roberts said. “I think that given that it’s something that’s recurring and then kind of looking at the history … it’s been more of we push him back a couple days — two, three days. As I understand it, we’re going to get back home, get an MRI, just make sure that’s kind of what we see.”

A 2024 All-Star with Los Angeles, Glasnow is 3-0 with a 2.72 ERA after his abbreviated seventh start this season. He signed a five-year, $136.5 million contract before the 2024 season.

–Field Level Media

World No. 64 Daniel Altmaier outlasted first-round opponent Zhizhen Zhang in Rome at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Wednesday, setting up a second-round matchup with No. 3 Alexander Zverev.

The 27-year-old German rallied to win 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4 against China’s Zhang, who finished with more winners (29-25) and fewer unforced errors (20-25). The two-hour, 23-minute match finally began to turn Altmaier’s way during a 7-3 tiebreak in Set 2, and he leveraged a 3-1 lead in the final set to the finish line.

“Recently it’s been quite tough,” Zhang said. “I haven’t won many matches and my confidence isn’t very high.

“If I had a bit more confidence, that service game at 5-4 in the second set could have been different.”

Altmaier holds a 1-3 record against his countryman Zverev, most recently suffering a loss in the Round of 16 at Munich in 2025. Altmaier’s lone win came in 2024 at Acapulco. Zverev is a two-time Rome champion.

Yannick Hanfmann defeated Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz 6-7 (3), 7-6 (2), 6-2 and Jan-Lennard Struff powered past Argentina qualifier Francisco Comesana 6-2, 6-4 to give Germany a clean sweep of the day’s action.

Struff advances to meet Czechia’s Jiri Lehecka (No. 13) while Hanfmann will next face No. 18 Luciana Darderi of Italy.

The Italians split their matches on their home turf, with wild card Matteo Arnaldi downing Spain’s Jaume Munar 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, and Fabian Marozasan losing to the Czech Republic’s Vit Kopriva 6-3, 6-3.

Zachary Svajda was the lone American winner, topping Argentina’s Marco Trungelliti 0-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4). Elsewhere, Patrick Kypson fell to Australia’s Aleksandar Vukic 6-3, 5-7, 6-0, while Jenson Brooksby lost to Argentina’s Sebastian Baez 6-3, 7-6 (8).

Svajda’s Round of 32 opponent will be Norway’s Casper Ruud, ranked No. 23.

Kazakhstan’s Aleksandr Shevchenko will face No. 13 Karen Khachanov of Russia after taking care of Argentina’s Camilo Ugo Carabelli 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (5). On the opposing side of the bracket, the Netherlands’ Botic van de Zandschulp advanced to meet No. 22 Arthur Rinderknech of France by finishing off France’s Alexandre Muller 7-5, 6-3.

In other action, Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo handled Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta 6-2, 6-1, Portugal’s Nuno Borges controlled the Netherlands’ Jesper de Jong 6-3, 6-0 and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Damir Dzumhur cruised past France’s Adrian Mannarino 6-4, 6-0.

–Field Level Media

A four-goal second half lifted Toluca FC past Los Angeles FC on Wednesday and into the CONCACAF Champions Cup final.

Toluca emerged with a 4-0 victory on Wednesday in Toluca de Lerdo, Mexico, giving the hosts a 5-2 aggregate win in the two-game, total-goal semifinal series.

The final will be an all-Mexican affair, with Toluca opposing Tigres UANL on May 30. Tigres completed a 2-0 aggregate victory over Nashville SC on Tuesday.

Mexico has both CONCACAF Champions Cup finalists for the first time since 2021, when CF Monterrey defeated Club America for the title.

For the 20th time in the past 21 years, a Mexican team will lift the trophy. The only exception in that span was the Seattle Sounders’ title run in 2022.

On Wednesday, Toluca got a chance to pull level on aggregate when LAFC’s Ryan Hollingshead was called for a foul in the 18-yard box shortly after halftime. Helinho powered in a left-footed penalty kick in the 49th minute.

Everardo Lopez gave Toluca the decisive goal on an individual effort in the 58th minute. He intercepted a pass as LAFC tried to play out of their defensive third, then took one touch and fired a 28-yard into the right side of the net. Hugo Lloris didn’t even move for the ball, as he had no chance of making the save.

LAFC finished the match with 10 players after Ryan Porteous received a red card for an 86th-minute foul that denied an obvious goal-scoring opportunity.

Toluca took advantage of playing a man up, as Paulinho scored twice in second-half stoppage time.

–Field Level Media