You’ll be hearing about this for a while, and may even see an amendment in MLB’s official rules as a result. Chase Utley pinch-hit for Zack Greinke with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning and singled, putting runners at the corners. The next batter, Howie Kendrick, hit a chopper up the middle that was snagged by second baseman Daniel Murphy. Murphy flipped to Tejada, who spun around to attempt to complete the 4-6-3 double play.
Utley, however, had other designs. He slid very late -- around the time he was parallel to the bag -- directly into Tejada, causing him to be unable to make a throw. Enrique Hernandez scored on the play. Utley, ruled out, walked off the field and Tejada was eventually carted off due to a fractured fibula. However, the umpires reviewed the play -- based on a force out, not the neighborhood play -- and deemed that Tejada never touched the bag, so Utley was called safe.
[mlbvideo id="521590283" width="600" height="336" /]
Under that interpretation of the rules, the umpire got the call correct. However, they could have called Utley out on interference under Rule 6.01 (6) which would have also deemed batter-runner Kendrick out, ending the inning with the Mets still leading 2-1.
