LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers activated third baseman Max Muncy off the injured list Monday and placed utility man Tommy Edman on the IL because of a right ankle injury.

Edman suffered what the Dodgers called a sprain while rounding first base in the fifth inning of Sunday’s road game against the Tampa Bay Rays. Edman, 30, missed the first two weeks of May because of a right ankle injury and had been struggling since he came back, slashing .214/.273/.323 over a 56-game stretch.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts didn’t provide a timeline for Edman’s return but said he would “be back at some point.” The Dodgers don’t want to bring him back until he is fully healed this time.

“Where we’re at on the calendar,” Roberts said, “we’ve got to make sure we do everything on the front end that we don’t have a setback.”

Muncy returned to his customary No. 5 spot for the opener of a three-game home series against the St. Louis Cardinals. He finished 0-for-3 and ended the game with a line out in the bottom of the ninth.

A little more than a month ago, he didn’t think he’d return to the field this year.

In the sixth inning on July 2, with Clayton Kershaw a strikeout away from 3,000, Chicago White Sox outfielder Michael A. Taylor slid headfirst into Muncy’s left knee. Muncy said his initial thought was, “I’ve got to get off this field so Kersh can keep pitching.” As he went down the tunnel, Muncy was convinced his season was finished.

With Muncy on the trainer’s table, the Dodgers’ medical personnel examined his left leg. He was told the knee felt strong, that the swelling wasn’t nearly as bad as anticipated. An MRI the following morning revealed no structural damage.

“As I was laying there on the ground that night, I thought for sure, ‘This is it,'” Muncy said. “At that time, obviously, you have a million things that start going through your mind. Obviously, they’re all the worst. It’s hard to stay positive in a moment like that. But just trying to be thankful and blessed to be able to get back on the baseball field this year. I’m going to try to enjoy every second of it knowing how close it was to not being there for me.”

NEW YORK — The first career save for Nic Enright was a particularly meaningful one.

Enright, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in late 2022 and is scheduled to complete his treatments later this year, allowed an unearned run in the 10th inning Monday night to close out the Cleveland Guardians‘ 7-6 win over the New York Mets.

“He was almost crying on the field just now,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “If you read his story, it’s pretty inspirational.”

Cleveland selected Enright in the 20th round of the 2019 amateur draft out of Virginia Tech. He received his diagnosis Dec. 22, 2022 — 15 days after the Miami Marlins took him in the Rule 5 draft.

After four rounds of immunotherapy in early 2023, Enright made nine minor league rehab appearances for the Marlins before being designated for assignment and returning to the Guardians in late May.

He missed most of last season due to a right shoulder strain, but went 2-1 with a 1.06 ERA in 16 appearances with Triple-A Columbus.

The right-hander has one more round of cancer treatment scheduled for November.

“I made the decision when I was diagnosed in 2022 with Hodgkin lymphoma that I wasn’t going to let that define my life and dictate how I was going to go about my life,” Enright said. “It’s something where, for anyone else who is going through anything similar, [it shows] I haven’t just holed up in my house and felt sorry for myself this whole time.”

Enright made his major league debut May 25 and has a 2.01 ERA in 19 appearances for the Guardians, whose bullpen is in flux with All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase on paid leave as part of a sports gambling investigation.

Hunter Gaddis and Cade Smith pitched the eighth and ninth innings Monday before Enright entered with a two-run lead. He gave up a two-out RBI single to Brett Baty before retiring Luis Torrens on a fly out to the warning track in right.

“I definitely held my breath as I saw Nolan [Jones] kind of keep running,” Enright said. “But I had faith. As he kind of got closer to the wall, I realized it was losing steam.”

Enright was showered with beer by teammates in the locker room.

“I was so happy, oh, I was going nuts in here,” Guardians starting pitcher Slade Cecconi said with a smile. “I was going absolutely berserk. He came in running up the stairs, smile on his face.”

Enright thanked his wife, his parents and the rest of his family for their support throughout an interview at his locker. He got the ball from the final out and plans to set aside his uniform and hat as well as a lineup card.

“Really, really cool,” Enright said. “These last couple of years, especially, I’ve gone through a lot of adversity and just everything that’s gone on. And so for me, it’s being able to reflect on those in these moments. I think that helps being able to slow the game down. Because it hasn’t exactly been a red-carpet rollout for my career trajectory.”

CHICAGO — New Chicago Cubs starter Michael Soroka left his first game with his new team with right shoulder discomfort and will require a stint on the injured list, the team announced on Monday after its 3-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds.

Soroka, who turned 28 on Monday, felt something grab in his shoulder after throwing a pitch in the second inning. He didn’t come out for the third.

“Went to go put a little extra on a fastball and it grabbed me a little bit,” Soroka said afterwards. “And it didn’t go away.”

Soroka was acquired last week from the Washington Nationals for two prospects and though he’s experienced a dip in velocity over the last month, he claimed he wasn’t in any pain as he took the mound for the first time as a Cub.

“There was no reason to believe there was anything wrong,” Soroka said.

The six-year veteran has been searching for answers to his drop in velocity, eventually getting an MRI before his last start before being traded. It came back clean, according to Soroka, so he stayed focused on his mechanics.

“Everyone knew the velocity hadn’t been there the last month,” he said. “I still had life on everything. The breaking ball was still playing like it did in the first [inning].”

Soroka struck out two in the first inning on Monday, displaying a nasty slurve to whiff TJ Friedl and Austin Hays, but then his velocity dipped in the second when he gave up a home run to Tyler Stephenson before leaving a few minutes later.

“You’re always concerned when you have to come out of the game,” Soroka stated. “It’s never fun. I’m embarrassed. You come to this org and hope to hit the ground running and two innings later, we’re having to pull the plug.”

The Cubs need fresh arms as Soroka was their lone addition to the starting rotation before MLB’s trade deadline last Thursday. Righties Jameson Taillon (calf) and Javier Assad (oblique) are on the mend and due back soon, but the team is still short in the starting staff.

Ben Brown took over for Soroka on Monday but he has been shaky as the every-fifth-day starter. They may need to turn to him again.

“We didn’t have any signs of it,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said of Soroka. “His velocity has gone backwards. He’s trying to figure out how to fix that. He was optimistic in the first couple days here that we could help him there and things could get better.

“This is unfortunate.”

Soroka was 3-8 with a 4.87 ERA for the Nationals before being traded for Single-A prospect Ronny Cruz and Triple-A outfielder Christian Franklin.