CHICAGO (AP) — The Arizona Diamondbacks activated catcher Gabriel Moreno from the 10-day injured list on Friday.
Moreno had been sidelined by a strained left oblique. He started the opener of a weekend series against the Chicago Cubs and went 0 for 5 with three strikeouts in a 6-5 loss.
“Having Gabby healthy and in this lineup means we’re a different team,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said before the game. “It’s the quality of at-bat, it's how he controls the running game defensively, how he runs the game behind the plate. So nothing against the other catchers, he’s just very dynamic, has a lot of tools.”
The Diamondbacks also recalled left-hander Brandyn Garcia from Triple-A Reno. Left-hander Philip Abner was sent down and catcher Aramis Garcia was designated for assignment.
Brandyn Garcia pitched two perfect innings in the loss to the Cubs. The 25-year-old lefty was helped by a solid running catch by Tim Tawa in left for the final out of the sixth.
“Garcia is really a great weapon for us in the bullpen,” Lovullo said. “And it’s not just left on left. He’s got wipeout stuff against any type of hitter. And when it’s on, it’s very impressive. So he’s been throwing the ball well. The things that we asked him to do when he went down, he’s taken care of piece by piece.”
Garcia was 0-1 with a 2.19 ERA in 10 appearances for Reno, striking out 18 in 12 1/3 innings. He pitched for Arizona and Seattle last year, going 0-2 with a 5.65 ERA in 14 games. He was acquired by the Diamondbacks in the Josh Naylor trade.
The 26-year-old Moreno is batting .244 with five RBIs in 14 games this season. He got hurt on April 10 against Philadelphia.
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Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Gabriel Moreno (14) high-fives a teammate before a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Friday, May 1, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Carolina Hurricanes had a long wait for Round 2 of the NHL playoffs, even to find out they would be playing the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Eastern Conference's top seed closed a four-game sweep of Ottawa last Saturday, then spent four days waiting for the Flyers to finally put away the Pittsburgh Penguins to set up the next best-of-7 series that begins Saturday night in Raleigh.
That meant plenty of downtime for a team in its eighth straight postseason. Forward Andrei Svechnikov and goaltender Frederik Andersen talked this week about filling time watching other playoff games, while top-line center Sebastian Aho spent more time playing with his daughter, born during an extended between-rounds break during last year's playoffs.
“You like having a couple of days to decompress but then you want to get right at it, and we didn't have that,” Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said Friday. “We'll see how we come out, it could help us, it might not, I don't know. We'll see. It's an interesting debate, everybody has it when you have this much time off.”
The Flyers closed out the Penguins in overtime on Wednesday in their first postseason appearance since 2020, ending a series that had them take a 3-0 lead then lose twice to turn it into a longer grind.
“My mind went, ‘Aw man, I wish we had two more days to prepare,'" Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said Friday of the shorter turnaround. “But then I'm thinking, ‘No, I want us to stay with the same routine.'"
Neither team could have asked for much more from their goaltenders in Round 1.
Andersen stopped 105 of 110 shots (.955) with a 1.10 goals-against average in the Ottawa series, including a Game 1 shutout. Philadelphia’s Dan Vladar wasn’t far behind, stopping 148 of 158 shots (.937) and posting a 1.61 GAA with shutouts in Games 2 and 6.
Cam York’s Game 6 winner was a long time coming for the 2019 first-round draft pick who spent the early years of his Flyers career in former coach John Tortorella’s doghouse.
Once Tortorella moved on, the Flyers showed their faith that York could still be a centerpiece to the rebuild with a five-year, $25.75 million contract last July.
The defenseman scored four goals this year, but it was his first career playoff goal that sent the Flyers into the second round.
“We needed one good decent look and we were able to capitalize,” York said. “Last year didn’t go my way, obviously. I wanted to have a bounce back year. I feel like I’ve done a pretty good job at it.”
The past week gave forward Nikolaj Ehlers and defenseman Alexander Nikishin time to recover from injuries for Carolina. Ehlers was a late scratch for Game 4 of the Ottawa series with a lower-body injury, while Nikishin was knocked from Game 4 on a jarring hit that left him with a concussion.
Nikishin returned to the ice Wednesday with a yellow non-contact jersey, then shed that for Friday's practice. Ehlers sat out earlier in the week but was back on the ice Friday morning.
Matvei Michkov could be one of the deciding factors in the series for the Flyers. As long as he plays.
Once the prized prospect the Flyers pinned their rise to respectability on, the Russian has instead been one of the more perplexing members of the roster. He admittedly arrived at training camp out of shape and fell into Tocchet’s doghouse. After the Olympics, he arguably became their most indispensable player and was the Flyers’ leading scorer after the break.
After he was held without a point in the first four games against Pittsburgh, he was a healthy scratch in Game 5. Alex Bump took Michkov’s spot and scored. Michkov was back for Game 6 and had the primary assist on York’s overtime game winner.
“They’re called building blocks,” Tocchet said. “I’ve talked to you guys all year about it, I know he’s a lightning rod, and all that stuff. But he’s just a guy trying to build his game. We’re trying to help him like he’s trying to help himself. And I thought (Game 6) was a building block for him.”
There's plenty of Philadelphia ties in the Hurricanes' locker room.
Carolina defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere played his first seven NHL seasons with the Flyers, while the Hurricanes acquired forward Nicolas Deslauriers as a trade-deadline depth piece in March amid his fourth season with the Flyers.
Then there's Brind'Amour, who was in his ninth season with the Flyers when he was traded to the Hurricanes in January 2000.
“I've always thought it was one of the best fan bases,” Brind'Amour said. “They're fair. If you put in a good effort, it's there for you. And if you're not, they let you know about it. That's actually what kept me on my toes all the time I played there, you didn't want to disappoint them, because you knew you'd hear about it.”
AP Sports Writer Dan Gelston in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
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Philadelphia Flyers' Owen Tippett (74) and Luke Glendening (41) celebrate after the Flyers won Game 6 against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoffs series Wednesday, April 29, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Carolina Hurricanes' Sebastian Aho (20) celebrates after his goal with teammate Jordan Staal (11) and Ottawa Senators' Thomas Chabot (72) nearby during the second period of Game 2 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series in Raleigh, N.C., Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Karl DeBlaker)
