Take A Look At This Dirty, Brutal Slide From Chase Utley That Injured Ruben Tejada

With the Dodgers and Mets tied at 1-1 in the seventh inning of NLDS Game 2, Los Angeles second baseman Chase Utley broke up a potential double-play with a brutal takeout slide into second. The slide was started extremely late and took out Mets infielder Ruben Tejada in mid-air, sending him crashing to the ground hard with no chance to throw the ball to first.

Tejada was shaken up on the play, had to be carted off the field and, ultimately, was diagnosed with a broken right leg. Adding insult to injury (literally), Utley was called safe on the play because a review revealed that Tejada’s never touched second base.

But guess what? Neither did Utley. Without bothering to touch the bag after his slide, Utley headed straight to the dugout, where he sat for several moments before being called safe by umpires. That alone should have been enough to rule him out on the play.

Instead, Utley returned to second base and, as play continued, came around to score later in the inning, giving the Dodgers a crucial late-game lead in a pivotal game. Los Angeles would go on to score an additional two runs in the inning as well.

For a sport that harps on integrity as much as baseball, this was an extremely bad look for the game – from the slide itself, to the actual review and the final decision. It was all bad.