You could see on the face of the Dodgers players that they knew it was tainted. Everyone knows it was. The only question is whether anyone does anything about it.
Just saw Murph's post-game reaction. I'd consider bringing him in to pitch to Utley if he has the nuts to bat again in this series.
Harvey won't be pitching again in the series regardless, so if it's the 6th or 7th inning....I'd be OK with leaving Harvey in.
@Rico444 might be a bit much to call him "human garbage" but I definitely agree with your general point.
I have no rooting interest, but "breaking up the double play" should only be viewed as a positive within the framework of a natural sliding motion.
To me, there were three different things wrong with the play:
1. Not a natural slide. He led with his two knees.
2. He veered off the base path to contact Tejada. I've never understood why baseball allows this.
3. He started the slide WAY late. He was damn near parallel with the bag when he started the slide.
It's hard to fathom how the umpires failed to come to this conclusion. My only guess is maybe it wasn't a reviewable play.
Plenty folks have posted videos online showing utley with at least two other slides into second as egregious as the one last night. One came against the Mets a few years back in 2010 and the other against Padres during second half this year. This is par for the course for this guy slides were just as ugly and went out of his way both times to take the shortstop out too hard at second.
Can take the boy out of Philly but can't take the Philly out of the boy.
Karma is a bitch. I just hope the Mets get to deliver it before the umps issue a warning.
I wish appealing the game was a real potential option here. I don't think anyone who understands the game could support that ruling.
It wasn't a slide, period.
I'd say that I hope Utley gets seriously injured, but he's a scrub bench player on their team so it really doesn't even matter. That's what makes it even more of a bush league play.
Gutless coward.
It absolutely turned the game. If it was called interference, which it was, it's a double play and our odds of winning are more than 75%. If he's simply called out, which he was because he never touched the base, our odds of winning are around 50%. After he was called safe our odds of winning were less than 25%.I'm not a Mets fan but that was a totally dirty play...didn't realize it last night as I was half asleep, but in the replay from cent field you can see Utley is 3 feet wide of the base and doesn't begin his slide until he is almost even with the bag. That was clearly interference. I think the result of that would be that him and the batter would both be out...that play could turn the series!!
How can Utley make contact with the player holding the ball and not be out especially since he never touched 2nd base? I thought the body was an extension of the ball/glove.
If a player bunts to first and the first basemen fields the ball and 'bumps' into the runner the runner is ruled out, right?
That's the rub. Per Torre, the neighborhood call is discretionary and nonreviewable, leaving them with only the touching of the bag to review. But as you point out, it makes it makes no sense because the only way you can see Utley's slide as kosher is if there is a chance at the double play, and they ruled that there was not.Again, even if MLB is to take the stance that a hard slide is merely a good baseball play, the umpire then needs to allow the infielder neighborhood for the force at second. They declared Utley safe due to at most a couple of inches. They can't have both ways as we (I still view myself as a middle infielder) would then have no way to protect ourselves shy of firing the ball into the runner (at which point all hell would break loose).