The Los Angeles Dodgers have baseball’s best one-two punch in a starting rotation, but the New York Mets are looking to deliver a crucial blow to take a commanding lead in this NL division series. Kenley Jansen pitched the ninth for the save, completing a five-hitter.
Advertisement
Of course, that’s not how the seething Mets viewed it after Tejada was carted off in an air cast. “And before he can get the ball out of the glove he’s getting tackled”.
“Slide would be generous”, snarled an irritated Daniel Murphy.
Mets manager Terry Collins told reporters Harvey called and said he got stuck in traffic. He explained why Utley was deemed to be safe on the play.
And third, it was the turning point in a playoff game that millions were watching. We obviously can not speculate on Utley’s intentions on the slide and he clearly did not want to deliberately injure Tejada but that ended up being the result of the play. “He’s a second baseman”.
Inside the Mets’ clubhouse, the players fumed-and not always as diplomatically as Wright.
“There’s no way you can do that”, he added.
So is Chase Utley going to be suspended?
A insane seventh inning helped the Los Angeles Dodgers overcome an early deficit to beat the New York Mets in Game 2 of their NLDS, 5-2. His flip was slightly behind Tejada, who was racing to the base.
They did it, and now Mattingly and the Dodgers are in a bigger bind than the one they faced in the seventh inning Friday. “I certainly don’t feel that he was trying to hurt somebody”. Now at face value, this was just another example of a good hard slide to try to break up a double play. Tejada, for all he’d surrendered, had narrowly missed the bag with his right foot, the one he’d then planted in order to attempt a throw to first base as Utley tore into the leg above it. There’d be no throw.
But there’s also an etiquette to it because the later the slide, the more risky it can be. As I say, it was a hard slide.
Utley’s slide is sure to spark plenty of debate because he did not go for the base but rather right at Tejada, and he wound up too far from second to touch it. I didn’t realize his back was turned.
“I bet if he didn’t get hurt nobody would be talking about it”, Houston Astros rookie shortstop Carlos Correa said. He said the umpires were “great” in how they handled the review.
And it’s a fine line between what’s considered out of bounds and what is a clean, hard-nosed play. Brett Anderson will get the pitching start for the Dodgers and the Mets will counter with Matt Harvey.
For starters, the Mets must figure out how to replace Tejada on the roster and prepare for Wilmer Flores to assume the starting shortstop role. Utley did not touch the base on the slide.
Kang is expected to be out six to eight months, but most players – including Kang – said they thought it was a legal slide by Coghlan. And just because an Major League Baseball rule is on the books doesn’t mean it’s enforced to the letter.
Johnson and Correa were among those calling for change – or at least clarification.
Cardinals third baseman Matt Carpenter, however, didn’t like the sound of that. I think his goal was breaking up a double-play, and in doing that someone broke their leg. He was, I agree, he was within range of the bag, yeah.
And even Granderson had reservations.
“He was unbelievable right from the get-go”, Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud said. “So it’s all this stuff that we’re going to look at and digest”.
Advertisement
Utley, meanwhile, was asked what constitutes a dirty slide. “I think that’s winning baseball”.
