LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy went on the injured list Thursday with a left knee bone bruise and is expected to be out about six weeks.
He had an MRI that showed no structural damage.
“It was obviously amazing hearing the news that nothing was torn, nothing was ripped,” said Muncy, who was walking gingerly. “That was obviously a huge sigh of relief for me, but it still sounds like too long of a time in my head.”
He left in the sixth inning Wednesday night after a collision with Chicago White Sox center fielder Michael A. Taylor, who was attempting a steal. Muncy took a throw from catcher Will Smith and tagged out Taylor.
Muncy sprawled on his back as a Dodgers trainer came out to check on him. He had to be helped off the field and was barely able to put any weight on his left leg.
“It was tough news but it was also great news in terms of when you look at the play and just the injury that could have happened,” Muncy said.
A White Sox trainer checked on Taylor, who sustained a bruised back and left the game. Taylor cleared concussion protocol and was still sore a day later. He was not in Chicago's lineup Thursday night.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he was “very relieved” at Muncy's test results and deliberately didn't watch the gruesome replay.
Miguel Rojas started in Muncy's place Thursday in the series finale. Kiké Hernández will play third on Friday against Houston. Utilityman Tommy Edman will begin taking grounders to prepare to join the platoon.
Muncy and Taylor tangled just before Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw got his 3,000th career strikeout against Vinny Capra to end the inning. There was a brief delay before Muncy and Taylor left the field.
“The first thought that was really going through my head was as I’m laying on the ground was ‘Dang, I have to make Kersh sit there and think about stuff right now.’ I really was not happy about that,” Muncy said.
“I'm in the X-ray room and heard the crowd roar and I was kind of like, ‘Man, missed it.' Honestly, that was the most heartbreaking thing to me.”
Muncy is hitting .250 with 13 home runs and 55 RBI in 81 games this season.
The Dodgers recalled outfielder Esteury Ruiz from Triple-A Oklahoma City, where he batted .292 with eight homers, 37 RBI and 38 stolen bases in 66 games. He was acquired in April from the Athletics in exchange for minor league pitcher Carlos Duran after being designated for assignment on March 30. He's expected to play this weekend.
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Los Angeles Dodgers' Max Muncy falls over White Sox's Michael A. Taylor as he tags him out attempting to steal third base during the sixth inning of baseball game Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Max Muncy holds his knee after tagging out Chicago White Sox's Michael A. Taylor attempting to steal third base during the during the sixth inning Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia on Thursday called on Emirati-backed separatists in southern Yemen to withdraw from two governorates they now control, a move that has threatened to spark a confrontation within a fragile coalition that has been battling the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the country's north.
The statement from Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry appeared aimed at putting public pressure on the Southern Transitional Council, a separatist Yemeni force long supported by the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia backs the National Shield Forces of Yemen's internationally backed government in the war against the Houthis.
The separatists' actions have “resulted in an unjustified escalation that harmed the interests of all segments of Yemeni people, as well as the southern cause and the coalition’s efforts,” the ministry said. “The kingdom stresses the importance of cooperation among all Yemeni factions and components to exercise restraint and avoid any measures that could destabilize security and stability.”
Meanwhile, the Houthis buried four of their fighters, including the group's top missile and drone commander who was presumed killed in March, in the first round of U.S. airstrikes to hit the rebels in March.
The Southern Transitional Council moved earlier this month into Yemen's governorates of Hadramout and Mahra. The Saudi statement said that meditation efforts were underway to have the council's forces return to “their previous positions outside of the two governorates and hand over the camps in those areas” to the National Shield Forces.
“These efforts remain in progress,” the ministry said.
The local Hadramout governorate's authority said that it supported the Saudi announcement and called for the Emirati-backed separatists to withdraw to positions outside the governorates.
Those aligned with the council have increasingly flown the flag of the flag of South Yemen, which was a separate country from 1967-1990. Demonstrators rallied on Thursday in the southern port city of Aden to support political forces calling for South Yemen to again secede from Yemen.
Following the capture of Yemen's capital, Sanaa, and much of the country's north by the Houthis in 2014, Aden has been the seat of power for the internationally recognized government and forces aligned against the Houthi rebels.
The actions by the separatists have put pressure on the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which maintain close relations and are members of the OPEC oil cartel, but also have competed for influence and international business in recent years.
There has also been an escalation of violence in Sudan, another nation in the Red Sea where the kingdom and the Emirates support opposing forces in an ongoing war.
The Houthis seized Sanaa in September 2014 and forced the internationally recognized government into exile. Iran denies arming the rebels, although Iranian-manufactured weaponry has been found on the battlefield and in sea shipments heading to Yemen despite a U.N. arms embargo.
A Saudi-led coalition armed with U.S. weaponry and intelligence entered the war on the side of Yemen’s exiled government in March 2015. Years of inconclusive fighting have pushed the Arab world’s poorest nation to the brink of famine.
The war has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the globe’s worst humanitarian disasters, killing tens of thousands more.
The Houthis have launched attacks on hundreds of ships in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war, greatly disrupting regional shipping.
While traffic has inched up recently in the lull in attacks, many shippers continue to go around Africa through the Cape of Good Hope to avoid the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Further chaos in Yemen could again draw in the United States.
Washington launched an intense bombing campaign targeting the rebels earlier this year that U.S. President Donald Trump halted just before his trip to the Middle East in October. The Biden administration also conducted strikes against the Houthis, including using B-2 bombers to target what it described as underground bunkers used by the Houthis.
In Sanaa, crowds gathered as uniformed men carried five coffins draped in Yemen’s flag and topped with flowers during the funerals for the four Houthi fighters.
The dead fighters include Maj. Gen. Zakaria Abdullah Yahya Hajar, whom analysts identified as the group’s drone and missile chief. U.S. forces reportedly targeted Hajar, who allegedly received training from the expeditionary Quds Force of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, in a strike in March in Sanaa.
The Houthis provided no information on how or when he died. However, a transcript of a discussion between top American officials on the messaging app Signal later published by The Atlantic magazine included then national security adviser Mike Waltz referencing the initial March 15 attack targeting a Houthi missile commander.
“The first target — their top missile guy — we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed,” Waltz wrote at the time.
The Houthis have increasingly threatened Saudi Arabia and taken dozens of workers at U.N. agencies and other aid groups as prisoners, alleging without evidence that they were spies — something fiercely denied by the United Nations and others.
Supporters of the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a coalition of separatist groups seeking to restore the state of South Yemen, hold South Yemen flags during a rally, in Aden, Yemen, Dec. 25, 2025. (AP Photo)
Supporters of the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a coalition of separatist groups seeking to restore the state of South Yemen, hold South Yemen flags during a rally, in Aden, Yemen, Dec. 25, 2025. Arabic reads, "announcement of South Arab state". (AP Photo)
Houthi supporters carry the coffin of one of their leaders, who they said were killed during previous Israeli airstrikes, during a funeral at the people's mosque in Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
A boy prays in front of his relative coffin during the funeral of 5 Houthi leaders, who they said were killed during previous Israeli airstrikes, at the people's mosque in Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
Houthi supporters carry the coffins of 5 leaders, who they said were killed during previous Israeli airstrikes, during a funeral at the people's mosque in Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
Houthi supporters carry the coffins of 5 leaders, who they said were killed during previous Israeli airstrikes, during a funeral at the people's mosque in Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
Houthi supporters carry the coffins of 5 leaders, who they said were killed during previous Israeli airstrikes, during a funeral at the people's mosque in Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
