MLB notebook: Cubs' Lester (hamstring) heads to IL

Chicago Cubs ace Jon Lester will be placed on the 10-day injured list Tuesday and miss “one, maybe two” starts with a hamstring strain, manager Joe Maddon announced Tuesday.

The left-hander got hurt while running the bases during the Cubs’ six-run second inning Monday in Chicago’s home opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He doubled home a run and later scored from second base on a single by Ben Zobrist.

“Sometimes when you have elite speed, these things can happen,” Lester said Tuesday in a tongue-in-cheek message on Twitter.

Lester, 35, is 1-0 with a 2.57 ERA in three starts this season. The five-time All-Star is 178-98 with a 3.49 ERA in 14 major league seasons.

—The Cleveland Indians placed right-handed starter Mike Clevinger on the 10-day injured list, but he will be out for much longer.

Clevinger sustained a right upper back/Teres major muscle strain during his Sunday start. Manager Terry Francona called the injury “fairly significant” and told reporters it could be six to eight weeks “before we’re even looking at him picking up a ball.”

Clevinger (1-0) has not allowed a run in two starts this season while striking out 22 in 12 innings. He left the Sunday game after five innings.

—Pittsburgh right-hander Chris Archer, Cincinnati outfielder Yasiel Puig and Reds manager David Bell received suspensions for their roles in a bench-clearing brawl Sunday.

Archer received a five-game suspension for intentionally throwing a fastball behind the back of Derek Dietrich during the fourth inning in Pittsburgh. In his first at-bat, Dietrich had dropped his bat and stood to admire his towering 436-foot home run.

Puig drew a two-game suspension for “his aggressive actions during the incident,” the league said in a statement. Bell, who raced onto the field to argue that Archer should have been ejected, received a one-game suspension for his actions.

—Former New York Mets outfielder Lenny Dykstra has sued ex-teammate Ron Darling, alleging defamation over comments Darling made about him in his new book.

TMZ Sports reported that the lawsuit was filed in New York. Dykstra wants Darling to pay damages for “defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.”

Darling has stood by an allegation he made in his book that Dykstra shouted racial slurs at Boston Red Sox pitcher Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd in the 1986 World Series. Darling wrote that the insults were “worse than anything Jackie Robinson might have heard.”

—The Boston Red Sox reinstated second baseman Dustin Pedroia from the injured list ahead of the team’s home opener against the Toronto Blue Jays.

The club optioned infielder Tzu-Wei Lin to make room for Pedroia on the active roster. Pedroia started and went 1-for-4.

Pedroia, 35, began the season on the IL while battling inflammation in his surgically repaired left knee. He played in just three games in 2018 with 13 plate appearances. Before Tuesday, his most recent major league game was May 29, 2018, against the Blue Jays.

—The Washington Nationals reached an agreement with right-handed reliever Bud Norris on a minor league deal, pending results of a physical, according to The Athletic.

Norris, 34, spent spring training with the Toronto Blue Jays, posting a 9.00 ERA in three innings before injuring his forearm and getting released on April 2.

Norris spent the 2018 season in the St. Louis Cardinals’ bullpen, going 3-6 with 28 saves and a 3.59 ERA in 64 appearances.

—A Texas woman has sued the Houston Astros for more than $1 million, contending her left index finger was injured permanently last summer when the team mascot shot a giveaway shirt in her direction using a “T-shirt cannon.”

Jennifer Harughty said she was sitting behind third base last July 8 when the mascot, Orbit, launched a T-shirt at close range, resulting in a broken finger.

“It was a life-changing event that I think if it happened to anybody else … they would feel the same way,” Harughty told KTRK-TV in Houston.

—Field Level Media