On Saturday night at the start of the 7th inning, trailing 2-1 to the New York Mets, the Los Angeles Dodgers were facing the daunting prospect of being down two games to none in a best of five series. But then pinch-hitter Chase Utley delivered a base hit and a slide/tackle at 2nd base that may have saved the Dodgers season and definitely ended the season of Mets’ shortstop Ruben Tejada, who left the game with a broken leg.
OK, let’s just start of by admitting it. I am pissed off. I am fracking pissed. I’ve been a Mets fan for 40 years. Utley, who spent most of his career with the Philadelphia Phillies, is one of the chief villains for fans of the Mets, alongside (ironically) now-Dodgers teammate Jimmy Rollins. Mets fans will forever be bitter about the conclusion of the 2007 regular season, when the New Yorkers blew a 7 game lead with 17 games to play against the Phils, with another 3 1/2 game blown lead the following season. The narrative (absolutely reasonable in my view) was that Utley, Rollins and the Phillies were tough and that the Mets were soft. So this bad blood with Utley goes back awhile.
So here was the situation on Saturday: the Dodgers had runners on 1st and 3rd with rookie Kike Hernandez at 3rd and Utley at 1st. The Mets’ starter Noah Syndergaard, gassed after throwing 115 pitches (more than 10% of which were 100 or 101 miles per hour), was relieved by veteran Bartolo Colon. At the plate for the Dodgers was Howie Kendrick, who hit a ground ball to the right side of 2nd base. Daniel Murphy made an awkward flip to Tejada for the force; Tejada then made an acrobatic (and clearly futile) attempt to turn the inning-ending double play.
Of course, Tejada never got the ball out his right hand, having been taken out at 2nd base on a hard, late slide by Utley, a slide that broke Tejada’s right leg. With no double play, Hernandez scored easily to tie the game at 2.
To add insult to a real injury, Dodgers’ manager Don Mattingly challenged the the call at 2nd base, claiming that Tejada never touched the bag for the force play. After an interminable delay with video replays being analyzed in New York, the umpires ruled that Utley was safe at 2nd. The Dodgers now had runners at 1st and 2nd with one out, Addison Reed relieved Colon and Adrian Gonzalez promptly delivered an 0-2 pitch for a 2-run double that gave the Dodgers a 4-2 lead and essentially ended the game.
You can see Utley’s slide and aftermath by clicking here.
There were three possible outcomes that the umpires could have called, either on the field or through the review process in New York.
- The call that was ultimately rendered, that Tejada did not touch 2nd base for the force out and that Utley was safe.
- That Tejada was “in the neighborhood” of 2nd base, so the call of Utley being out at 2nd would stand. For those who don’t know, the “in the neighborhood” play is actually designed to protect middle infielders from this type of event. If the fielder is trying to turn a double play, he doesn’t have to ACTUALLY touch the 2nd base bag. In this case, the umps determined that there was no chance to turn two and that Murphy’s throw took him off the bag. I disagree vehemently. Tejada was clearly TRYING to turn two, even if it was a futile effort, and throw was not that far off-line.
- The umps could have determined Utley’s slide was illegal, that he intentionally interfered with the fielder. In this case, Utley would have been out, the batter would have been out, the run would not count and the score would have been tied at 2 going to the 8th inning. This is the call that Mets fans throughout the land desperately wanted! Boooo. You can read about this rule in detail in an excellent blog by ESPN’s David Schoenfield.
OK, Mets nation didn’t get option #3 on Saturday night, the umpires did not invoke Rule 6.05. Bummer, oh well, it’s over, the Dodgers won, the series is tied and heading back to New York for Game 3.
One of the points made by many other baseball commentators is that this type of play should be (and might be) illegal in the near future. Tejada is the second shortstop in two months to have a leg broken by a runner barreling into 2nd base; the Pirates Korean rookie shortstop Jung Ho Kang was pummeled by the Cubs’ Chris Coghlan in a similar play. In 2011, Giants’ catcher Buster Posey, the National League’s reigning rookie of the year, suffered a season-ending broken leg on a collision at home plate. Within three years, new rules were designed to eliminate home plate collisions. These collisions, both at home plate and at 2nd base, not only carry the risk of leg injuries but also concussions. All major sports have become much more conscious of the long-term damage to the brain that concussions produce. It’s actually not that uncommon for a runner trying to break up a double play at 2nd base to hit his head against the leg of the fielder and suffer a brain injury.
In college baseball, the rule is different. The runner must slide directly into 2nd base, they cannot “go after” the fielder to break up the double play. For a baseball fan, this is a tough one: there is an old-school feeling that a lot of baseball fans (including this one) that a runner breaking up a double play is just a part of the game, it’s been happening since the game began in the 19th century. Well, that’s true but all sports do and must evolve. Old school baseball did not have wild card playoff teams or instant replay review. The truth is that Utley’s slide may or not have been legal, it is definitely in the old school Pete Rose tradition of hard-nosed baseball, but it was absolutely a dirty play. Legal perhaps, dirty for sure, as even acknowledged by Los Angeles area writers covering the Dodgers.
Anyway, what happens now? What is the impact going forward to Game 3 in New York on Monday?
If Monday’s game was a regular season game, Mets’ pitcher Matt Harvey would certainly drill Utley or another Dodger batter with a 98-mile-per-hour fastball to the ribs. That’s old-school retaliation. The umps would warn both benches, the next hit batsman would result in an automatic ejection and a baseball “brawl” would likely ensue. But this is the playoffs. Mets’ manager Terry Collins needs to let Harvey and the rest of the team know that, no matter how much they might want to retaliate, it’s not worth putting a runner on first base in a crucial playoff game. And make no mistake, Game 3 is a must-win for the Mets. It’s the one game where the Dodgers don’t have Cy Young candidates Clayton Kershaw or Zack Greinke on the bump; the starting pitcher will be Brett Anderson, a decent pitcher but not remotely in the caliber of his teammates Kershaw or Greinke or in the same class as Harvey. If the Mets were to lose Game 3, they would have to beat the Dodger aces back to back, a daunting task as the first two games showed us.
One thing you can expect for sure: you will never hear boos like you’ll hear for Chase Utley when the rosters are introduced Monday night at Citi Field, unless he isn’t there at all. Hall of Famer Joe Torre is now MLB’s chief baseball officer and in charge of player discipline. On the TBS post-game show last night, former star player Gary Sheffield and former player and manager Dusty Baker, both hard-nosed on the field, believe that Utley should be suspended. Torre, in the post-game news conference, acknowledged “concern” over the lateness of the slide.
Recently inducted Hall of Fame pitcher Pedro Martinez was more emphatic in his condemnation of his former teammate:
He (Utley) could have easily erased Tejada’s career right there…. That kid’s from Puerto Rico. I know his family, I know his background… They needed that kid to be the open door for that family. A veteran … jeopardizes his career. I don’t know that I could forgive someone like that.
— Pedro Martinez, TBS post-game show
I would be surprised if Torre doesn’t suspend Utley for at least one game, the first game in New York, and he might suspend him for the rest of the series. I’m sure that Chase Utley was not intentionally trying to break Ruben Tejada’s leg but he was intentionally trying to cut the legs out from underneath him with a slide/body tackle that was out of the baseline far enough that he never even touched the bag.
That’s the irony of the play, by the way, neither Tejada or Utley ever touched 2nd base. However, by rule, because the umpire on the spot called him out, Utley was under no obligation to touch the base after the fact. If Tejada had tagged him he would have been out and the call would not have been overturned but he was too busy lying on the ground with a broken leg to worry about tagging the runner.
Again, whether it was a legal play or not (which is being questioned by many), it was a dirty play and Joe Torre needs to send a message that it’s not OK.
Suspend him.
LATE NEWS Sunday night: thank you for reading this blog Mr. Torre. Chase Utley has been suspended for Games 3 and 4 of the NLDS in New York!!
Thanks for reading.
A frustrated Mets fan,
Chris Bodig