A.J. Puk put on IL with elbow inflammation as Diamondbacks shuffle bullpen

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A.J. Puk put on IL with elbow inflammation as Diamondbacks shuffle bullpen

2025-04-20 06:05 Last Updated At：06:11

CHICAGO (AP) — Left-hander A.J. Puk was put on the 15-day injured list by the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday with left elbow inflammation.

Puk has four saves in eight games with Arizona this season, going 0-0 with a 3.38 ERA. He’s 17-20 with a 3.53 ERA and 26 saves in 212 games over a six-year career with three teams.

Puk’s IL move was retroactive to Friday. He had Tommy John surgery in 2018.

Manager Torey Lovullo said Puk made the team aware of the injury on Thursday in Miami after he pitched the ninth inning and earned a save in the Diamondback's 6-4 win. Puk had reported elbow fatigue earlier, Lovullo added.

Puk will undergo imaging on Monday after the team returns to Arizona.

“We just feel like at this point in time it's the safest thing for him to just pull back and get him evaluated and figure out what's going on in there,” Lovullo said. “I'm going to remain optimistic. We don't know what's going on in there.”

Arizona shuffled its bullpen, recalling right-hander Drey Jameson from Reno and selecting the contracts of righties J.P. Feyereisen and Juan Morillo from their Triple-A farm team ahead of Saturday's 6-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs. Feyereisen and Morillo each pitched a scoreless inning in the game.

Infielder Grae Kessinger was designated for assignment.

Arizona optioned left-hander Joe Mantiply and right-hander Bryce Jarvis to Reno following Friday’s 13-11 loss at Chicago.

Jameson was 0-0 with a 2.70 ERA in seven games with Reno. He pitched in 19 games in the majors in 2022 and 2023 with the Diamondbacks, going 6-1 with a 2.63 ERA.

Feyereisen was 1-0 with a 0.96 ERA and seven games with Reno. The 32-year-old is 8-5 with a 2.95 ERA for his career in the majors with three teams over four seasons.

Morillo is 0-0 with a 1.42 ERA in six games with Reno. He appeared in nine major league games with Colorado and Minnesota with no record and a 13.5O ERA.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Trump's Qatar trip is off to a flying start as Air Force One gets another fighter jet escort

2025-05-14 22:29 Last Updated At：22:32

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — President Donald Trump's trip to Qatar is off to a flying start.

Like Saudi Arabia a day earlier, Qatar didn't bother waiting for Trump to land before setting out to impress him with a fighter jet escort.

As Trump flew in to Riyadh on Tuesday and then in to Doha on Wednesday as part of his Middle East trip, he received ceremonial escorts from each country's F-15 fighter jets, exceptionally rare sights.

A White House official, Margo Martin, posted videos of the escorts online.

“Saudi F-15’s providing honorary escort for Air Force One!” she wrote on Tuesday. The Royal Saudi Air Force has the world’s largest fleet of American-made F-15s after the U.S. Air Force.

Then on Wednesday, Martin posted: “what a view flying into Qatar!!!” She even captured one of the Qatari aviators, sitting in the F-15's backseat, returning the favor by taking a picture of Air Force One.

The fighter jets aren't the only planes Qatar has used to impress Trump, offering to gift him a luxury Boeing 747-8 that the U.S. could use as Air Force One while new versions of the plane are under construction by Boeing.

Trump has defended the idea as a fiscally smart move for the United States. But his critics have questioned what would amount to a president accepting an astonishingly valuable gift from a foreign government, calling it “naked corruption” and "a grave national security threat.”

The Republican president is on a three-nation Middle East trip and visits the United Arab Emirates on Thursday.