Mets SS Tejada breaks leg on Utley slide

Kendrick hit a grounder up the middle that Daniel Murphy flipped to Tejada to start a potential double play.

“You’re taught from an early age to try to break up double plays”, he said.

As for Utley, long after the game, he remained as calm as when he finished the original play and ran off the field without even checking on Tejada as the shortstop lay flat on his back.

Mets infielder Kelly Johnson called it a “tackle”.

“The objective of this rule is to penalize the offensive team for deliberate, unwarranted, unsportsmanlike action by the runner in leaving the baseline for the obvious goal of crashing the pivot man on a double play, rather than trying to reach the base”, the comment says.

“Only Chase knows going in there what the intent was”, third baseman David Wright said. “That’s all I know”.

Joe Torre, MLB’s chief baseball officer, will examine the play to determine whether anything “excessive” occurred. Major League Baseball later explained that the umpires viewed Utley’s slide as clean even though it was late, and Murphy’s errant throw negated the neighborhood rule.

Tejada had to be carted off the field with an air cast on his right leg. The Mets later tweeted that Tejada fractured his right fibula. They directed Utley back to second base, a bag that he not only never touched, but hadn’t appeared to attempt to touch (although he was never tagged, either). Utley should’ve been called for interference since the slide was illegal due to the fact that he started it at the bag and intentionally went after the player covering second base.

Utley was only about a foot off the base.

Utley was originally called out before the play was reviewed and overturned.

“That’s not a slide”, veteran outfielder Michael Cuddyer said.

“They had said you have to be within an arm’s length of the bag”, he said. “I think it does help to have faced them before”.

While he is not the most emotive of players, Utley’s words seemed heartfelt.

Utley had a head of steam when he slid late into Tejada’s right leg, flipping him in the seventh inning to trigger a four-run Dodgers rally that might have saved their season. Kicking out his leg so it collides with the other player just below the knee? “They’re not very happy about it”. Dodgers manager Don Mattingly defended Utley.

“Like I said, it’s unfortunate for a guy to get hurt on that type of play. Just trying to break up a double play”.

“You’re talking to a 17th-round draft pick that was cut from his high school team until his senior year”, Hershiser said.

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.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets play game three of the NLDS Monday. Brett Anderson (10-9, 3.69 ERA) will get the nod for the Dodgers and the Mets will counter with Matt Harvey (13-8, 2.71). He struck out eight and walked none a night immediately after teammate Clayton Kershaw fanned 11 though losing his fifth straight postseason game.

LA closer Kenley Jansen then came in the ninth and was able to close out the game. Yoenis Cespedes got things started for the Mets with a solo home run in the second inning for his first of the playoffs.

That proved critical because, after Corey Seager made the second out on a short fly, Adrian Gonzalez cracked a tiebreaking two-RBI double and Justin Turner a run-scoring single to put the Dodgers ahead 5-2.

The Dodgers had runners on the corners down 2-1 to the Mets in the 7th inning of Game 2 of the series when Howie Kendrick hit into a fielder’s choice.