In Game 2 of the NLDS between the Mets and Dodgers (NYM-LAD GameTracker), Chase Utley undertook a downright violent takeout slide on Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada in the seventh.
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Adrian Gonzalez hit a go-ahead, two-run double during Los Angeles’ four-run surge in the seventh to come from behind and beat the Mets at Dodger Stadium. The throw Tejada received from second baseman Daniel Murphy took Tejada away from the bag.
Tejada was put on a flatbed vehicle after an air cast was placed on his leg. The Mets said Flores sustained a fractured right fibula.
Now, maybe the most baffling part of all this is that Utley, although he never touched the bag, was called safe.
Utley slid into second base hard-and late-to keep Tejada from throwing to first base. Torre said second base umpire Chris Guccione ruled it was a legal slide on the field.
Utley broke Tejada’s right leg during the seventh inning of the Dodgers’ 5-2 win Saturday night while trying to break up a double play at second base. “If he doesn’t mind guys coming in like that when he’s turning a double play, then we don’t have any problem with it. But somebody is going to get hurt”.
Let’s go back to late September, 2010, when Utley was still with the Phillies and Tejada was a 20-year-old rookie… He plays the game passionately. “Only Chase knows what the intent was”, Wright said Saturday. “He’s just playing the game the way he plays it. He plays it hard, he’s aggressive”. “It’s deflating when you have your shortstop taken out that way”, Mets captain David Wright said.
Game three is Monday at Citi Field in New York.
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Jorge Soler’s two-run homer capped a five-run second inning as the Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-3 to even their National League playoff series at one game each. He struck out nine and walked four in following up Jacob deGrom’s 13-strikeout performance in winning Game 1. “But we wanted to get greedy and head back to New York with a 2-0 lead”. “When he came out in the first inning and was sitting at about a hundred (mph), you knew he was pumped up”.
