Steven Matz named Mets’ Game 4 starting pitcher in NLDS

Like everyone else still inside Dodger Stadium, Mets starter Noah Syndergaard spoke about “that” play, the one in the seventh inning on which noted Mets killer Chase Utley took out Ruben Tejada and fractured his leg. Was it dirty? Tejada, one would hope, was about to make an attempt to avoid a collision with a fast-moving baserunner, but he never got the chance. But, two things are weird about this: first, Utley’s “slide” was clearly not a slide within any definition of Major League Baseball and should have been ruled illegal interference-he did not even start his slide until he was parallel with the base and directly under Tejada-and second, Utley never touched the bag himself.

Center fielder Yoenis Cespedes and rookie left fielder Michael Conforto homered for New York.

The New York Mets have lost their shortstop. “And not jump into, break fibulas and knock people out of games”. By then, perhaps we’ll all be able to agree on what happened in Saturday’s Game 2 between the Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers. “And we don’t have anything to show for it”, said second baseman Kelly Johnson. The issue is he hit our shortstop first before hitting dirt.

There’s just one question to answer. Los Angeles’ Justin Turner followed with a double of his own to make it 5-2.

Mets manager Terry Collins emerged for a scheduled news conference at Citi Field wearing a polo shirt and jeans. I think our bench let him know.

What he said should be a preview of what comes next.

Unlike the Dodgers scenario with Chase Utley, the Indians were well in the lead of this 9-3 game, and Vina admittedly was blocking the path of Belle as he was running to the base. But as a Mets fan I now feel confident giving the ball the “Gardy” in a big pressure situation.

“When he’s on the mound – I’ve had this conversation with him before – and when he steps on that piece of rubber, everything else is about the guy at home plate”, Collins said.

Dodgers center fielder Enrique Hernandez drew a walk and advanced to third on pinch-hitter Utley’s single to right. He’s not intentionally trying to hurt anyone. That concerns me. The lateness of the slide.

The slide itself was suspect enough to give baseball’s chief officer, former Dodgers manager Joe Torre, reason to review it for possible action against Utley. “You could say it was late, but to me it was legal”. “But we’re still talking about it. I’m still in charge of determining if it was an over-the-top thing….”

“I’d hate to think that Utley tried to hurt somebody”.

“That is something that is mind-boggling coming from a second baseman who plays the same position”, Martinez said. “We move on. We’ll reevaluate the way we go into second base”. “You’re correcting the umpire’s mistake”.

“The tying run’s on third base, I’m going hard to try to break up the double play”, Utley said.

NOTES: Mets INF Daniel Murphy, who tagged LHP Clayton Kershaw for a solo home run Friday, hit only one of his career-best 14 homers off a left-hander during the regular season in 126 at-bats…. With that said, he also agrees with the rest of his teammates in that Utley did not have to go as hard as he did into second base.