I largely agree with Lee Smith’s take on the collision between Ruben Tejada and Chase Utley in the bottom of the 7th inning at beautiful Dodger Stadium on Saturday.  I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Utley isn’t “to blame for Tejada’s injury”— to me, Utley’s excessively late slide deserves a strong portion of the blame—but Smith is right that Tejada’s awkward, too-late pirouette, and his related failure to get out of the way or off the ground, made him very vulnerable in a way that middle infielders are taught to avoid.  This was a case where—unfortunately, both for the Mets and for Tejada’s health—extra effort didn’t pay off.  (Utley’s slide was not too far wide of the bag—he could have touched it, although he didn’t.)

But whether Utley’s too-late slide was somewhat dirty or barely clean—and whether it was deliberately late or just poorly executed—the thing that really did in the Mets (if not Tejada) was instant replay.  On the field, the umps called Utley out.  The Dodgers tied the game on the play, as Enrique Hernandez scored from third, but there were then two outs.  The next batter, Corey Seager, flied out to left, which should have ended the inning with the Dodgers having scored just one run in the 7th and the game tied, 2-2.