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NEW YORK — Arizona Diamondbacks ace Zac Gallen appears headed to the injured list after straining his right hamstring five pitches into Thursday night’s 3-2 loss to the New York Mets.

The 28-year-old right-hander, who finished among the top five in NL Cy Young Award voting in each of the last two seasons, was scheduled to return to Phoenix on Friday for a scan.

Gallen felt the injury on his knuckle-curve that Francisco Lindor lined to center for a leadoff single.

Gallen hopped after releasing a fastball to DJ Stewart, his second batter. Manager Torey Lovullo and an athletic trainer went to the mound, and Gallen limped as he walked to the dugout.

“Hamstring grabbed on me, so I threw another pitch to see if it was severe and sense if I could keep pitching or not, if it was more like a cramp,” Gallen said. “Just knew that I couldn’t really keep going or if I did I would put the team in jeopardy of not giving them a chance to win.”

Lovullo was forced to use his bullpen to get 24 outs from Bryce Jarvis (one inning), Brandon Hughes (1 2/3 innings), Justin Martinez (three innings), Joe Mantiply (two outs), Ryan Thompson (one inning) and Kevin Ginkel (two outs).

Lovullo said he likely would wait until results of the scan to determine a roster move. Seattle’s Triple-A team, the Reno Aces, was at home, complicating bringing a minor leaguer to New York as a replacement for Gallen, who is 5-2 with a 3.12 ERA in 11 starts.

“We’re going to get him back to Arizona. We feel comfortable doing that and we feel like that’s the safest bet to get the right evaluation and get more detail on exactly what he’s feeling,” Lovullo said. “It’s not great news. I’m not going to lie, and we will eventually find out what the solutions are.”

Gallen left a start on April 26 at Seattle with a man on and no outs in the sixth after a fastball to Julio Rodriguez because of right hamstring tightness, and said he felt tightness akin to a cramp during the third or fourth inning of a May 18 outing against Detroit.

“The one in Seattle was a little bit more minor,” Gallen said. “This one, it’s a mild, I guess. It felt similar to kind of what I did in ’21.”

Gallen said the area of hamstring trouble was slightly different all three times this season.

“Just up and down,” he said.

Gallen missed two weeks because of his right hamstring in July 2021, when he didn’t pitch between July 2 and 17, and he also experienced a hamstring issue in 2019.

Gallen hoped any layoff will be similar to the one in 2021.

“It’s been three years now, so maybe my memory’s kind of a little bit fogged on that but, yeah, that one, it didn’t feel great, either, and wound up missing I think a start or two,” he said.

NL champion Arizona matched its season-low of six games under .500 at 25-31. The Diamondbacks already were missing right-hander Merrill Kelly, sidelined since April 15 by a strained right shoulder, and left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez, who signed an $80 million, four-year contract as a free agent and hasn’t pitched this season because of a strained pitching shoulder.

Arizona wasted a two-run lead and lost its fourth straight. The Diamondbacks have scored nine runs in their last six games.

“They’re absorbing it right now, and it’s painful. It hurts,” Lovullo said. “It hurts a lot because we care, and I’m OK with that. But at some point we got to be able to cycle through and understand why we lost this baseball game. There were some things we did wrong, and we just got to find a way to make them right, and we’re going to be just fine.”

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Nats, Orioles settle lengthy dispute over TV rights

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Nats, Orioles settle lengthy dispute over TV rights

NEW YORK — The Nationals and Orioles ended a legal fight over television rights dating to 2012 when Major League Baseball announced Monday that Washington will be freed from its deal with the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network after the upcoming season.

MLB said Nationals games will be broadcast by MASN in 2025 under a new, one-year contract.

“After this term, the Nationals will be free to explore alternatives for their television rights for the 2026 season and beyond,” MLB said. “As part of the settlement, all disputes related to past media rights between the Nationals, Orioles and MASN have been resolved, and all litigation will be dismissed.”

MASN was established in March 2005 after the Montreal Expos relocated to Washington and became the Nationals, moving into what had been Baltimore’s exclusive broadcast territory since 1972. The Orioles were given a supermajority partnership interest in MASN, starting at 90%, and Washington made a $75 million payment to the network for an initial 10%.

The agreement called for the Nationals’ equity to increase 1% annually, starting after the 2009 season, with a cap of 33%. The network’s rights payments to each team were set at $20 million apiece in 2005 and 2006, rising to $25 million in 2007, with $1 million annual increases through 2011.

After that, the network was to pay fair market value with disputes over the Nationals’ rights to be resolved by MLB’s Revenue Sharing Definitions Committee, a group of three MLB club officials. The RSDC started to hear the case in 2012 and lawsuits over the decision were filed two years later in New York Supreme Court.

Litigation over the 2012-16 fees resulted in a 2019 RSDC decision that valued them at $296.8 million. After arguments that went to the New York Court of Appeals, the sides agreed to a settlement in June 2023.

A 2023 RSDC decision held Washington was owed about $304.1 million by MASN for 2017-21, after an adjustment downward of almost $45.5 million for the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. That decision was confirmed in New York Supreme Court.

Another RSDC decision in December had awarded the Nationals approximately $320.5 million for 2022-26. The rights fee was set at about $72.8 million each for 2022 and ’23 — matching 2021 — and dropped to approximately $58.3 million annually from 2024-26, citing deteriorating economics of regional sports networks.

A court hearing on that decision had been scheduled for March 13.

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Braves starting catcher Murphy out 4-6 weeks

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Braves starting catcher Murphy out 4-6 weeks

Atlanta Braves starting catcher Sean Murphy will miss the start of the season with a rib injury.

The one-time All-Star and Gold Glove winner is expected to be sidelined for four to six weeks with a cracked rib on his left side, the team said Monday.

Top prospect Drake Baldwin is a candidate to replace Murphy behind the plate for Opening Day at San Diego on March 27.

Murphy, 30, struggled last season after an abdominal strain on Opening Day and batted .193 with 10 homers and 25 RBIs in 72 games with the Braves in 2024. He is a career .233 hitter with 77 homers and 240 RBIs in 510 games with the then-Oakland Athletics (2019-22) and the Braves.

The Braves declined Travis d’Arnaud‘s $8 million option during the offseason, clearing the path for Murphy to be the No. 1 catcher. D’Arnaud signed with the Los Angeles Angels.

Chadwick Tromp is the only other catcher on the Atlanta 40-man roster. He hit .250 in 19 games in 2024.

Murphy made the National League All-Star team in 2023 and collected a Gold Glove at catcher with the Athletics in 2021.

Field Level Media and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Moustakas will sign 1-day deal, retire as Royal

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Moustakas will sign 1-day deal, retire as Royal

SURPRISE, Ariz. — Mike Moustakas will retire with Kansas City after spending 13 years in the majors and winning the World Series with the Royals in 2015.

The Royals announced Moustakas’ retirement Monday. The 36-year-old infielder will sign a one-day contract with his first big league team on May 31, and he will be honored before Kansas City’s home game against Detroit that day.

Moustakas hit .247 with 215 homers and 683 RBIs in 1,427 games, also playing for Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Colorado and the Los Angeles Angels. The three-time All-Star appeared in his last major league game with the Angels on Sept. 30, 2023.

Moustakas was the No. 2 pick in the 2007 amateur draft. He broke into the majors with Kansas City in 2011.

He became a key performer for the Royals during a memorable stretch for the franchise. He hit .284 with 22 homers and 82 RBIs in 147 games in 2015, helping the team win the AL Central. Then he drove in eight runs in the postseason as the Royals won the World Series for the first time since 1985.

Moustakas bashed a career-high 38 homers for Kansas City in 2017. He set a career best with 95 RBIs while playing for the Royals and Brewers in 2018.

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