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ROME -- Chelsea made a losing start to Champions League for the first time as Basel came from behind to win 2-1 in London and add to the difficulties of the "Special One" during his Stamford Bridge homecoming. Last seasons runner-up Borussia Dortmund also had a bad night, losing 2-1 at Napoli with both coach Juergen Klopp and goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller being sent off. Seven-time champion AC Milan struggled, too, before two late goals gave the injury-hit Rossoneri a 2-0 victory at home to Celtic. Meanwhile, Theo Walcott and Aaron Ramsey scored as Arsenal opened its 16th straight campaign in the top European competition with a 2-1 win at Marseille to join Napoli atop Group F. Elsewhere, it was: Atletico Madrid 3, Zenit St. Petersburg 1; Schalke 3, Steaua Bucharest 0; and Austria Vienna 0, Porto 1. At the Camp Nou, Messi scored his 60th, 61st and 62nd career goals in his 80th Champions League match. "Barcelona is full of individual talents," Barcelona coach Gerardo Martino said. "Today we can talk about Messi and Valdes, another day Xavi or Neymar. It is normal that one of them rises to the occasion." Messi, the four-time FIFA world player of the year, opened the scoring in the 22nd minute after he was fouled on the edge of Ajaxs area, then stepped up to fire in a perfect-placed free kick. The Argentina forward doubled the hosts advantage in the 55th by hitting on the break when Ajax was caught looking for the equalizer. Neymar, on his European debut, set up Gerard Pique to add Barcelonas third goal in the 69th before Messi completed his hat trick in the 75th. Messis treble leaves him nine goals short of Raul Gonzalezs all-time record of 71. Barcelona and Milan top Group H, although the Rossoneri didnt take the lead until eight minutes from time with an own goal before Sulley Muntari sealed the result two minutes later. In London, boos rang out at the final whistle after Marco Streller clinched Basels first-ever win in England in the 82nd minute by flicking a header past goalkeeper Petr Cech after seizing on slack defending. "I am responsible for everything," Mourinho said. "Especially after a bad result. In the good moments I want everyone to shine, in the bad moments I want everyone to keep calm." Although Oscar lit up a drab start by putting Chelsea in front before halftime, Mohamed Salah began the Swiss sides comeback in the 71st by bending in an equalizer before Streller ensured that Chelseas worst start to a season in the decade under Roman Abramovichs ownership was prolonged. Basel and Schalke share the Group E lead. In Italy, prized signing Gonzalo Higuain put Napoli ahead 29 minutes in on a rainy night at San Paolo stadium by heading home a cross from Camilo Zuniga, after which Klopp was sent off for protesting. Higuain was also at the centre of the action when Weidenfeller was shown a red card for using his hands outside his area to deny the striker in first-half added time. Zuniga scored an own goal for Dortmund in the 87th with a poorly intercepted cross. Napoli and Arsenal meet next in Group F. . -- Chris Jones and Louisville have done a tremendous job protecting the basketball this season and thats led to easy victories. .75 million contract for the 2014 season and avoided arbitration. The team announced the agreement on Tuesday. . Wrights first stint with Milwaukee was on a 10-day contract from March 14-23. He played in two games, averaging six points and two rebounds in 16. . Funny, they looked like longtime friends during Pittsburghs 5-1 demolition of Dallas on Tuesday night. Quick to the puck and even quicker to the net, the Penguins top line overwhelmed the suddenly struggling Stars as Pittsburgh bounced back from a dismal weekend sweep at the hands of Philadelphia by jumping on Dallas early. . -- Detroit Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera has a broken bone below his right eye after being struck by a bad-hop grounder, sidelining the star slugger for at least a week with opening day on deck.DENVER -- Early on, Stephen Strasburg didnt have his best stuff and yet the powerful right-hander tried to bear down to keep his team close. Almost paid off, too. The Washington Nationals loaded the bases in the ninth before falling 6-4 to Jorge De La Rosa and the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday. Strasburg (7-8) settled in after a shaky start, giving up four runs -- three of which were in the first -- and nine hits over 5 1-3 innings. "Giving up three runs early, I couldve easily shut it down," Strasburg said. "I didnt want to do that. I wanted to keep it as close as possible. Give the guys a chance to come back -- anything can happen here." And almost did. Closer LaTroy Hawkins got the first two outs in the ninth, before allowing RBI singles to Jayson Werth and Anthony Rendon to make it a 6-4 game. With the bases loaded, Hawkins struck out Ian Desmond to end the rally. "You have to tip your cap sometimes. He did a good job," Desmond said. "He made some pitches on me. "We did a good job battling back right there. We kept on grinding away. Ill take us in that situation a lot of times." Denard Span had four hits for the Nationals, who finished the season series 5-1 against Colorado. He was one of the few to have success against De La Rosa, who gave the Rockies a badly needed boost as they snapped a seven-game skid. "Jorge, another great outing. He did it again," manager Walt Weiss said. "Were scuffling like crazy and he takes the ball and gives us a great performance and wins the game." The Rockies tried a little bit of everything to break out of their funk. They wore their socks high and even engaged in a pregame staring contest. Turns out, the best cure for their slump was simply the left arm of De La Rosa. De La Rosa (11-6) struck out a season-high 11 as he pitched efficiently into the eighth inning. He kept the Nationals guessing by effectively mixing in a changeup with his 89-mph cutter. "All my pitches were working really good today," said De La Rosa, who allowed two runs -- one earned -- before being lifted for a reliever with one out in the eighth.dddddddddddd"My command of all my pitches was really good today." The Rockies decided as a team to wear their socks high, just to try something new. Even Weiss followed the trend. This helped ease the tension, too: Prior to the first pitch, Rockies outfielder Brandon Barnes and Nationals reliever Aaron Barrett engaged in quite a stare-down, with both players standing near the dugout holding their hats over their chest to see who would blink first. After several minutes, Barnes finally gestured toward Barrett that they settle it with a game of rock-paper-scissor. Right after De La Rosas warmup pitches, home plate umpire Paul Emmel told Barnes go into the dugout, with Barrett throwing his hands up in triumph. "Well do any stare-down to win games, for sure," joked Nolan Arenado. Once again, De La Rosa mastered a park that typically isnt friendly to pitchers. Hes 42-14 lifetime at Coors Field. "This is the perfect park for me," he said. Usually, its the hitters saying that. De La Rosa had his pitches dancing all day. He struck out Bryce Harper three times. The Nationals were just 1 of 14 with runners in scoring position off De La Rosa. "He knows how to pitch here," Nationals manager Matt Williams said. "Hes got a surprising fast ball when he needs it, but he relies on his changeup a lot. Thats a great strategy here. "Hes a good pitcher. He pitches well." The Nationals were without infielder Ryan Zimmerman, who went on the 15-day disabled list Wednesday with a strained right hamstring. "Its a pretty substantial strain of the hamstring," Williams said. "You never know how its going to react, so well just take it day by day. Its going to be a couple of weeks at least. Well see where he is at the end of that and go from there. He pulled it good." NOTES: Werth wasnt in the starting lineup because of a tender right knee. ... The Nationals are off Thursday before opening a three-game series in Cincinnati. ' ' '
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