Utley earns two-game suspension for slide into Tejada

Moving on, while Utley’s suspension validates those who felt Utley’s slide was illegal and believed the umpires basically cost the Mets the game, it opens the wound again. In the AL, the Astros can punch their ticket to the Championships Series with a Game 4 win against the Royals at 1:07 p.m. EDT, while the Rangers lead the Blue Jays 2-1 in a best-of-five series and try to eliminate Toronto at 4:07 p.m. EDT after failing to do so Sunday.

As Ken Roesnthal notes, Utley will appeal the suspension using examples of similar slides that did draw punishment.

If placed in the same situation, every Dodger would have had the same responsibility of breaking up Tejada’s play, and they all would have executed it in their own fashion.

Tejada was immediately rushed to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a fractured right fibula, an injury that will have him miss the remainder of the postseason.

“The Dodgers stand behind Chase Utley and his decision to appeal the suspension issued tonight by Major League Baseball”.

“I tried to put a body on him to break up the double play”, Utley said of Tejada.

The Dodgers will have to play with only 24 active players during the suspension.

Baseball’s rulebook goes on to state that “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”. “Obviously this is an umpires judgment play.”. “Any time there’s a double play you should do your best to break it up”. He hit the ground first.

“You leave yourself vulnerable when you do that”, Randolph says.

But Randolph knows all about the complicated feelings the Mets must be experiencing now, the outrage and, perhaps, the thirst for revenge over one of their own going down. He doesn’t run the basepaths motivated by what many wish the game would look like under a different set of rules.

Los Angeles Dodgers second baseman Chase Utley (26) before a…

“I would’ve called Scott and said, ‘Sit down and shut your F’ing mouth; you work for me and I’ll tell you what to do, ‘” John said.

Chase Utley ended Ruben Tejada’s season with this aggressive slide into second base in Saturday night’s NLDS match up between the Dodgers and Mets.

The former Mets and Yankees manager came out Sunday evening and said, “Mr. Utley’s actions warranted discipline”.

But now Utley finds himself in the middle of baseball’s hottest controversy after his hard takeout slide broke New York Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada’s right leg on Saturday night.

Good questions all. It should be noted that over 21 plate appearances against Harvey, Utley has a. 333 batting average, a. 429 on-base percentage, a home run and three distinct memories of being hit by a pitch, including the retaliatory strike in April punctuated by a Harvey staredown. That means Wilmer Flores will be starting at a position where he’s struggled in the past.

Mets infielder Kelly Johnson called it a “tackle”. “So we thought (Tejada) would be the guy”. The Cardinals and Cubs play today in the first playoff game at Wrigley Field in seven years. “And I think he will”. Torre hinted this could be coming late Saturday night when he harped on the “lateness” of Utley’s slide, but he also had said he would need to further scrutinize the play before coming to any conclusion. “Where he hit Ruben on the field certainly was something that needs to be addressed, but I’ll let Major League Baseball handle that”.