D'Backs Agree To Extension With Miguel Montero  —  The Diamondbacks and catcher Miguel Montero have agreed to a five-year, $60MM contract extension, reports Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports (Twitter link).  The deal is the richest in Arizona club history and is expected to be announced at a press conference tomorrow.

O'Dowd has faith Rockies will improve as team  —  General manager understands frustration with growing club  —  COLORADO SPRINGS — A Rockies roster that's mismatched — an experienced lineup, paired with starting pitching that has three members who haven't made as many as 23 Major League starts …

Aroldis Chapman: Starter or closer?  —  Reds' fireballing left-hander a closer for now, but could be a starter next season … It's become the coolest scene in the grand panorama of Cincinnati sports.  Possibly even cooler than fans who catch two home-run balls in the space of about a minute and a half.

Tonight's pitching matchup at Citi Field (Gee/Bass)  —  Dillon Gee (3-3, 5.44 ERA) will start for the Mets.  After two poor starts against the Phillies and Brewers, Gee rebounded to allow three runs in 6 2/3 innings to the Blue Jays last Sunday to earn his third victory of the season.

Sources: Jones near megadeal with O's  —  The Orioles, building on their early season momentum, are close to signing center fielder Adam Jones to a club-record contract extension, major-league sources say.  —  The deal, according to one source, will be “well north” of the two largest deals in team history …

Wainwright has a grip on a new pitch  —  TOWER GROVE  • Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright knows catcher Yadier Molina wasn't expecting it and it's possible Molina didn't think Wainwright had it anymore, but there it was on the fourth pitch to Yonder Alonso earlier this week.  —  It arrived at 92 mph.

Rockies place Hernandez on DL, Nieves called up  —  CINCINNATI — Ramon Hernandez had no issue playing through the tendinitis in his left hand.  Pain is one thing.  The lack of performance is another.  Hernandez could not help the team offensively.  —  “It wasn't fair to them or me.

DNA on beer can needle ‘likely’ belongs to Clemens  —  WASHINGTON (AP) -A needle stored with a beer can appeared to contain an extremely tiny amount of Roger Clemens' DNA, which turned out to be good news and bad news for both sides in the perjury trial of the Major League Baseball star.

Carson & Carrasco out; Egbert called up from Buffalo  —  The Mets have optioned LHP Robert Carson to Double-A Binghamton, the team announced.  —  To replace Carson on the roster, the Mets purchased the contract of RHP Jack Egbert from Triple-A Buffalo.  —  In two relief appearances with the Mets …

The Nationals and Braves meet for first place  —  Starting tonight in Atlanta, the Nationals will receive the kind of test that has remained absent since their first season in Washington.  Sitting in first place, they will walk into the second-place team's stadium and have to fight to stay at the top.

Hairston returns from DL to start Friday's game  —  LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers activated utilityman Jerry Hairston from the 15-day disabled list Friday, and he was scheduled to play third base against the Astros.  The club placed Justin Sellers on the 15-day DL as a corresponding move.

Padres' offense breaks out against Mets after rain delay … NEW YORK — Padres manager Bud Black tried spinning a tale about extra batting practice in the cages during the rain delay to explain why his offense came alive when the game resumed.  —  He couldn't do it.  The swings that counted were just too good.