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LOS ANGELES — Gavin Stone, the only Los Angeles Dodgers starter to take every turn this season, was placed on the injured list with shoulder inflammation Friday, adding more uncertainty to a star-studded rotation that has been in flux all year.

Stone hasn’t been ruled out for the rest of this season, but the calendar makes a potential return extremely challenging. Stone will shut down his throwing for “10-ish” days, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said, after which he will hope for the best.

“I’m optimistic he is going to do everything he possibly can,” Friedman said. “There’s just so much unknown around it that we’re going to do all we can to dominate each day, and hopefully when he starts throwing, he can ramp up from there. It’s just hard to speculate right now.”

With 25 days remaining until the start of the postseason, the Dodgers have four key starting pitchers waiting to come off the IL: Stone, Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Clayton Kershaw.

Yamamoto will be activated to start Tuesday’s game, but he has been out since the middle of June with a strained rotator cuff and isn’t expected to be stretched out to more than four innings. Glasnow, out since Aug. 11 with elbow tendinitis, will throw a bullpen session Saturday that will go a long way toward determining his readiness for October. Kershaw, meanwhile, exited his Aug. 30 start against the Arizona Diamondbacks with a bone spur in his left big toe. His timetable is uncertain.

Jack Flaherty seems to be the only lock to start postseason games for the Dodgers at this point, though Walker Buehler has also shown promising signs of late. The Dodgers called up right-hander Landon Knack and left-hander Justin Wrobleski for temporary relief, optioning right-hander Michael Peterson to create the extra spot on the active roster. Knack and Wrobleski are two of 12 pitchers who have made traditional starts for the Dodgers this season (not counting openers).

The aforementioned injuries don’t even account for promising young starters who have undergone major arm surgeries over the past 14 months, a list that includes Tony Gonsolin, River Ryan, Emmet Sheehan and Dustin May.

“It’s been a really challenging year on that front and something that we’re going to need to spend a lot of time on this winter to really dig in on — from when we onboard a pitcher, when we draft or trade for him, through the development path, at the major league level,” Friedman said.

“Obviously it’s a problem in the industry. And the injuries that are happening to us, we feel. The injuries that are happening to other teams, we don’t feel as much. They don’t quite hit home the same way. And so, we’re going to do everything we can to put ourselves in the best position going forward. But obviously all of our focus right now is to do what we can to finish the regular season strong, be in the best position to go out and win hopefully 11 games in October.”

Stone, 25, has made 25 starts in his first full season in the major leagues, going 11-5 with a 3.53 ERA in 140⅓ innings. Friedman said Stone felt “discomfort” in his right shoulder coming out of his Saturday start against the D-backs, prompting imaging and a subsequent visit with team doctors who recommended rest. An MRI, based on Friedman’s comments, was inconclusive.

“It’s really more symptom-based,” Friedman said. “It wasn’t something that it was like, ‘Oh, we need to have surgery.’ It was, ‘Hey, let’s let everything calm down, let’s pick back up a ball and see where we’re at.’ And to the extent that he comes back and feels good and doesn’t have symptoms, I think we’re in a good spot. If he does pick up the ball and has problems, then we’re in a tough spot. We’ll have a much better feel for that once we get back to the throwing phase of where we are.”

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Georgia leading rusher Etienne ruled out vs. Vols

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Georgia leading rusher Etienne ruled out vs. Vols

No. 12 Georgia will be without leading rusher Trevor Etienne for Saturday’s showdown against No. 7 Tennessee.

Etienne was downgraded from questionable to out on Thursday night’s SEC availability report.

Etienne left Georgia’s win over Florida with an upper-body injury on Nov. 2 and did not return. He played limited snaps in last week’s 28-10 loss at Ole Miss, carrying the ball six times for 24 yards.

Etienne leads the Bulldogs with 477 rushing yards and seven touchdowns this season.

The loss is another blow to Georgia’s banged-up backfield. Cash Jones is also listed as questionable while Branson Robinson remains out after missing the past three games with a knee injury.

That leaves true freshman Nate Frazier as the only healthy Bulldogs running back who has played meaningful snaps this year. Frazier is second on the team with 333 rushing yards and three touchdowns.

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QB Castellanos exits after losing BC starting job

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QB Castellanos exits after losing BC starting job

Boston College quarterback Thomas Castellanos, who lost his starting job earlier this week, will not be returning to the team, he announced Thursday night.

Castellanos, who started 12 games last season and retained the top job under new coach Bill O’Brien, wrote on X that “unfortunately, all good things come to an end, even though it’s sooner than I would like.” He did not mention the transfer portal in his departing message and has not officially entered it. The junior from Waycross, Georgia, started his career at UCF and appeared in five games in 2022.

O’Brien said Tuesday that Grayson James, who replaced Castellanos in last week’s win against Syracuse, will start Saturday when Boston College visits No. 14 SMU. Castellanos “wasn’t real thrilled” with the decision, O’Brien said, adding that the quarterback decided to step away from the team for several days.

Castellanos had 2,248 passing yards and 1,113 rushing yards last season under coach Jeff Hafley, passing for 15 touchdowns and adding 13 on the ground. He had 18 touchdown passes and only five interceptions this season, but his accuracy dipped in recent weeks, and he completed only 2 of 7 passes against Syracuse before being replaced.

In his statement, Castellanos thanked both coaching staffs he played for at Boston College and wrote that he had “some of the best experiences of my life in the Eagles Nest and I will truly cherish these memories forever.”

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Gators’ Lagway ‘ready to play,’ will start vs. LSU

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Gators' Lagway 'ready to play,' will start vs. LSU

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida quarterback DJ Lagway is “ready to play,” coach Billy Napier said Thursday on his weekly radio show.

Napier removed Lagway from the team’s injury report and penciled him in to start against No. 21 LSU in the Swamp on Saturday.

Lagway practiced every day this week while progressing from a strained left hamstring. The highly touted freshman was carted off the field against Georgia on Nov. 2. Tests revealed a “less significant” injury than initially feared, and now he’s back in time to face the Tigers.

The Gators (4-5, 2-4 Southeastern Conference) need him. They have to win two of their final three regular-season games to become bowl eligible.

LSU (6-3, 3-2) has struggled mightily against dual-threat QBs, including Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, who ran for 185 yards and four touchdowns last week.

Lagway returns after walk-on and Yale transfer Aidan Warner started in his place against Texas. Warner threw two interceptions and was 12-of-25 passing for 132 yards in a 49-17 loss.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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