LOS ANGELES — Third baseman Max Muncy was diagnosed with a Grade 1 oblique strain and landed on the injured list Friday, a major blow to a Los Angeles Dodgers team that finds itself fading in the standings.

Muncy was originally a late scratch from Wednesday’s lineup after feeling soreness in his right side during pregame batting practice. The Dodgers’ hope was that sitting out for the finale from Angel Stadium, then getting extra rest during the Thursday off day, would allow Muncy to return for a critical series against the division-rival San Diego Padres, who have taken a one-game lead in the National League West.

But Muncy will miss this weekend’s series from Dodger Stadium, as well as the following series from San Diego’s Petco Park next weekend.

“I don’t think anyone expects it to be season-ending,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “but hopefully it’s sooner than later.”

Roberts doesn’t believe the current oblique injury is as bad as the one that forced Muncy to miss about two months last year, but even in a best-case scenario, the Dodgers might be without their third baseman and left-handed power hitter until around mid-September.

Muncy got off to a bad start this year before turning it on in the middle of May, slashing .312/.438/.616 with 11 home runs in a stretch of 41 games. Muncy then injured his left knee during a scary collision at third base and wound up missing most of July. He returned Aug. 4, went 8-for-23 with four home runs over the course of eight games, and now he’s out again — at a time when the reigning World Series champs could really use some reinforcements.

The Dodgers held a nine-game lead in the NL West as of July 3 and have since gone 12-21 to fall a game back of a surging Padres team that arrived in L.A. on the heels of a five-game winning streak. As many as six high-leverage relievers reside on the Dodgers’ IL, though three of them — Michael Kopech, Kirby Yates and Tanner Scott — are nearing returns. The offense, meanwhile, has been mostly unproductive over the past six weeks, posting an 0.708 OPS that ranks 22nd in the major leagues.

During Muncy’s absence, the Dodgers will use Alex Freeland, a switch-hitting rookie who’s batting .176 in his first 12 games, and Buddy Kennedy, a right-handed-hitting journeyman with a career .193 batting average. Other potential reinforcements like Tommy Edman, Hyeseong Kim and Enrique Hernandez remain on the IL and aren’t close enough to a return.

“It’s certainly a tough loss,” Roberts said. “I think it’s just guys got to continue to perform to their abilities. It’s hard to kind of backfill Max, what he means, as far as the plate discipline, the slug, the on-base, all that stuff. I feel good about our lineup, the guys that we have, and they just have to go out there and take good at-bats. That’s all we can do right now.”

WASHINGTON — Philadelphia Phillies closer Jhoan Duran was carted off the field after he took a comebacker off his right foot in the ninth inning of a 6-2 victory over the Washington Nationals on Friday night.

The Phillies said that initial X-rays were negative and that Duran would be evaluated further Saturday.

Pitching in a non-save situation after four days off, Duran began the ninth by facing Paul DeJong, who hit a sharp grounder to the mound on his fourth pitch. The ball deflected off Duran’s foot and into foul territory for a single.

Duran ran toward the ball but began limping as he approached the foul line. After a lengthy visit by team trainers, he took a seat in the Nationals’ bullpen cart and was driven off the field.

“He ran like a shot to retrieve the ball, and once he got there, I think the adrenaline wore off and the pain set in,” Thomson said. “But before the cart came out, he said, ‘I actually feel better, I think I can walk over to the dugout.’ But we got all these steps up here, so we just wanted to use the cart and take him all the way around, so he didn’t have to go up the steps.”

Acquired from Minnesota at the trade deadline, Duran is 4-for-4 in save opportunities with the Phillies.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Former Michigan staffer Connor Stalions referred to his advanced sign-stealing operation as both “counterintelligence” and “the KGB,” called the video it elicited “dirty film” and ultimately threw his phone in a pond rather than turn it over to NCAA investigators.

The NCAA decision in the University of Michigan advanced scouting case divulges many details from Stalions’ scheme, which captivated the country as it unspooled during Michigan’s 2023 national championship run.

The punishments for that operation, nearly two years after it was revealed, arrived on Friday.

They include a three-game suspension for current head coach Sherrone Moore — with two games already self-imposed to serve this year in Week 3 and 4 against Central Michigan and at Nebraska. He’s also slated to miss the first week of the 2026 season, a game against Western Michigan expected to be played in Germany.

There is also an 8-year show-cause penalty for Stalions, an additional 10-year show-cause for former head coach Jim Harbaugh and a fine expected to eclipse $30 million for the school.

Not included: either the vacating of past victories or a postseason ban going forward, sanctions many of the Wolverines’ rivals felt were deserved.

In a 74-page report, the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions details an unusually effective and nuanced investigation. Along the way, it offers a glimpse under the hood of Stalions’ KGB operation and the NCAA’s decreasing willingness to punish its schools with sanctions that directly impact the playing field. (Michigan should have been “required” to have a postseason ban in this case, per the report, but a new era of NCAA rules shifted that to unprecedented fines.)

The NCAA report, for example, reveals Stalions spent $35,000 on tickets in the secondary market of 2022 alone, part of the spend to help arrange for 52 games to be illicitly scouted. There’s even a mob-like reveal of what happened to the taped material from the illegal scouting trips. “My film is in the bottom of the pond,” Stalions is quoted saying.

At times, it reads like an espionage novel — taped phone calls, smuggled hard drives and a battle between former coach Jim Harbaugh’s staff and the university’ compliance offense that has spanned numerous NCAA investigations.

Harbaugh’s new 10-year show-cause, for example, doesn’t even kick in until 2028, when a previous four-year show-cause from a previous case is completed. It’s all a formality since Harbaugh, 61, is entering his second year as coach of the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers. His NCAA penalties would end in 2038.

The report shows that one recruiting staff member said in a text about Michigan’s compliance staff: They are “s—ty at their jobs and actively working against us from the inside. True scum of the earth.”

Or as the Committee concluded, perhaps with a hint of comedy: “The relationship between Michigan’s football staff members and the compliance office was challenging at best.”

In the end, the case ends up unsatisfying for nearly every side. Big Ten fans, especially at rivals Ohio State and Michigan State, consider this a slap on the wrist.

And while Michigan fans mostly breathed a sigh of relief, the university quickly announced it will appeal the decision claiming the ruling “makes fundamental errors in interpreting NCAA bylaws” and “includes a number of conclusions that are directly contrary to the evidence — or lack of evidence.”

Among the revelations was the fate of former Michigan assistant Chris Partridge, who the school fired in November of 2023 in the middle of the scandal. Partridge, now an outside linebacker coach with the Seattle Seahawks, always maintained his innocence. He wound up cleared of wrongdoing in the NCAA report. He faces no sanctions.

“It feels like a weight lifted off my shoulders,” Partridge told ESPN on Friday. “I had faith because I didn’t do what I was accused of doing. I’m glad I could stand tall and the truth came out.”

For the true crime fans who jumped on the story, there’s no neat and tidy answer to the level of complicity at Michigan to Stalions’ elaborate scheme.

The report says: “Aspects of the record suggest that there may have been broader acceptance of the scheme throughout the program. At a minimum, there was a willful intent not to learn more about Stalions’ methods. However, the true scope and scale of the scheme – including the competitive advantage it conferred – will never be known due to individuals’ intentional destruction and withholding of materials and information.”

The Committee clearly was frustrated with what it believed was a lack of cooperation from key parties — from Harbaugh to Stalions to other assistants. As such, questions remain unanswered.

One question that was solved: Yes, Stalions admitted per the report, that was him on the Central Michigan sideline for a 2023 game at Michigan State.

Investigators didn’t uncover who funded the operation for Stalions, how the information initially left Michigan’s building and who engaged the private firm that ultimately brought the preponderance of evidence to the NCAA. (That allowed the Big Ten to ultimately issue the three-game sportsmanship violation for Harbaugh.)

Less ambiguous is the future of the NCAA enforcement and infractions process, as this decision potentially marks those groups’ final blockbuster case. And they went out amid a paradigm change of how to punish schools.

While the NCAA would still technically oversee a case like Stalions because it involves fair play, a majority of the high-profile cases in college sports will be shifted to the College Sports Commission, which doubles as a vote-of-no-confidence in the NCAA infractions process. For the NCAA, that allows them to outsource much of their least popular work.

The NCAA’s decision to hit Michigan with neither a postseason ban nor the vacating of victories is part of a recent sea change in the infraction process. For decades, such penalties were common even in cases featuring less serious violations.

The Committee on Infractions acknowledged that under part of the rulebook “a postseason ban is required in this case” and that “a multi-year postseason ban would be appropriate.” However, it also wrote that college athletics have moved away from any penalty that would impact student-athletes who weren’t implicated in the original case.

“The NCAA Constitution states, ‘Division and, as appropriate, conference regulations must ensure to the greatest extent possible that penalties imposed for infractions do not punish programs and student-athletes not involved nor implicated in the infractions,” the report states.

Therefore, “the panel determines that a postseason ban would unfairly penalize student-athletes for the actions of coaches and staff who are no longer associated with the Michigan football program,” the COI wrote. “Thus, a more appropriate penalty is an offsetting financial penalty.” (No retroactive penalties were given for games Michigan won, in part, because the case didn’t yield any ineligible players.)

While the fine is significant, Michigan, with its Big Ten membership and requisite rich media deals, massive fan base and largest home stadium in the country, can absorb nearly any financial punishment. Michigan’s athletic budget for the 2025-26 year is expected to be $266.3 million.

The results of the case will do little to impact the Wolverines potential to field a competitive team going forward. Michigan is ranked 14th in the preseason AP poll and has a top-10 national recruiting class verbally committed.

Also left unanswered in the report were pushbacks from Michigan and Stallions about what the genesis of the case was, the name of the “outside investigative firm” that brought the information to the NCAA and the use of an “unnamed” informant in the case. Michigan argued, per the report, that knowing “the individual’s identity was pertinent to the institution’s defense and ability to assess witness credibility.”

However, the Committee on Infractions countered that only evidence independently developed by the NCAA enforcement staff was considered in the case.

There still could be some drama remaining. Michigan’s appeal could go in any direction, after all. The school certainly has financial incentive to do so — the likely $30 million fine is nearly unprecedented.

Moore, meanwhile, could appeal the additional game suspension he received, which doesn’t come until the first game of 2026. But he didn’t indicate either way on Friday.

If all of this drama, tension and scheming sounds suited for Netflix. Well, it’s too late for that. Netflix released a Stalions documentary last summer.