Chase Utley Breaks Ruben Tejada's Leg on Late Slide, Somehow Called Safe Without Touching Bag

In the seventh inning, with the Mets holding on to a 2-1 lead and runners at the corners, Howie Kendrick hit a little flare up the middle that Daniel Murphy snared almost directly behind second base. He flipped it to shortstop Ruben Tejada who pirouetted around the bag just in time to get slammed into by Chase Utley, who was called out. Utley immediately popped up and ran off the field and Tejada remained on the infield dirt, writhing in pain. He was eventually carted off the field and we later learned he broke his right fibula.

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly challenged the play, pointing out that Tejada never touched the bag and that Utley should be safe. After review, umpires agreed with Mattingly, ruling that Tejada did not touch the base, and that the throw from Murphy pulled him off the base, thereby making the "neighborhood play" inapplicable. 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.

That first mistake is easily dispatched with due to the bane of instant replay's existence, the "judgment call." MLB's chief baseball officer Joe Torre answered some questions after the game and addressed the judgment call aspect:

Q. Joe, can you explain on what basis umpires viewed the slide as legal and not constituting illegal interference?

Joe Torre: Yeah, well, I mean, that's a judgment play. We get a chance to watch it. I'm still watching replays of it. They get a chance, one shot to look at it. Especially with the fact that they've got to see if the guy touches the bag or touches the runner, so there are a lot of things they're looking for. Obviously, Chris Guccione didn't think it was a violation. That's a judgment.

It saddens me, and I think everybody else, that Tejada gets hurt here. There is no question. … I'd hate to think that Utley tried to hurt somebody. It certainly was late. That concerns me. The lateness of the slide.

So an obvious call on the field that was missed by a human umpire trying to process several pieces of information all happening at the same time and make the proper call based on all of it—which is an admittedly difficult thing to do that we are all aware of—is not subject to review. Here is where you put the shoulder-shrugging emoji.

What is subject to review, however, is whether Chase Utley was safe because Tejada never touched the bag. It's true, Tejada's foot never quite touches second base, and just as he got as close as he ever would to swiping it, Utley barreled into his leg, upending him, as Ernie Johnson noted on the broadcast, like a receiver going over the middle. (That's a football reference, by the way, a sport where the play is not over until someone is tackled.) That aspect of the play was reviewed and Utley was later awarded second base; let's got back to Torre and director of umpiring, Randy Marsh:

Torre: Tejada showed that he didn't touch the bag, and Utley never touched second base. The fact that he was called out meant he didn't -- he's not required to touch second base once he's called out. So when the play was overturned, he gets awarded second base on that.

Correct me if I'm wrong, if they had tagged Utley just before he went off the field, would that have changed that situation?

Randy Marsh: Yeah, he would have been out.

Torre: In other words, if whoever happened to have the ball had tagged him going by the dugout or something, then he would have been out.

This is where things get fuzzy because, while I understand that since he was called out, it means he's not required to touch the base—that part makes perfect sense—it's the next jump in the logical progression here that makes me scratch my head. The call on the field was this: Utley was originally called out, however neither player actually touched the bag, and a tag was never applied, almost entirely because of a late, and hard slide. How you go from that scenario, to awarding a base to a guy who never earned it does not compute. Where is the clear and compelling evidence that Chase Utley was safe? There is literally no evidence that Utley was safe. If the umpire never made a call until a tag was applied, like they do from time to time with plays at home plate, I'd be on board. But Utley was called out, ran off the field, and Tejada was left in a heap on the infield. That's the only frame you can view this play through, and there is nothing on video that says Utley was definitively safe.

Utley, who was involved in another late, hard tackle with Tejada in 2010, popped up immediately and ran off most likely because he knew it was a dirty slide and he was out by all rights. After the game, he said he was just playing "winning baseball."

"I feel terrible that he was injured. I had no intent to hurt him whatsoever," said Utley, who had reached with a pinch-hit single. "Any time there's a double play you should do your best to break it up."

The play as it was originally called tied the game anyway: Enrique Hernandez scored from third on Kendrick's hit but Addison Reed gave up two more runs on a double from Adrian Gonzalez after he recorded what would have been the third out of the inning (but because of the review, it was only the second). The Dodgers added one more run in the inning and that 5-3 score held up the rest of the way.

What the play should have been called, however, was an inning-ending double play. Whether Hernandez actually score would probably be another one of those judgment calls.

A double play should've been called as a result of Chase Utley's "slide." pic.twitter.com/7nw2UCFLL0
— Jared Diamond (@jareddiamond) October 11, 2015

The Series, which is now tied at 1-1, heads back to New York for Game 3 on Monday.

UPDATE:

According to USA Today columnist Bob Nightengale, Utley has been suspended for two games based on his actions.

Chase Utley suspended 2 games

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) October 12, 2015