Gallen goes on IL with mild hamstring strain
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PHOENIX -- Zac Gallen sustained a mild Grade 1 strain of his lateral right hamstring during Friday night's loss to the Giants. On Saturday, the D-backs placed the right-hander on the 10-day injured list.
The team is hopeful that Gallen will not be out for an extended period of time.
"Timeline, I’m not really sure," Gallen said. "It feels decent walking around. Not really in a lot of pain. Just a little bit of discomfort. Some tenderness. Nothing -- no grabbing, no tough pain that’s unbearable."
Gallen felt the discomfort on a pitch to Wilmer Flores in the third inning and thought it would go away, but on the next pitch -- with the count at 1-1 -- he felt it more and fell to the ground.
"I had something similar in '19 in my left hamstring," Gallen said. "I was hoping it was kind of a cramp or a little spasm or whatever. It felt pretty similar. Let me see if I can make one more pitch, try to get an out and put him away. It just felt the same, that’s when I kind of called the trainers out."
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Remedial work
The D-backs went through popup priority drills on the field Saturday afternoon before batting practice, something that a Major League team doesn't often do outside of Spring Training.
Multiple times this year -- including once in Friday's loss -- the D-backs have let a popup fall between the outfield and infield because of a lack of communication between players.
Manager Torey Lovullo had seen enough of it Friday night, labeling it as "embarrassing." He was asked Saturday if he had ever put a team through popup priority drills during a season as a manager.
"This is the first time, and I think it's self-explanatory," Lovullo said. "You guys understand the reason why we're out there. I think our coaches did a really good job of delivering some really key messages today before [the players] went out there and did it."