Chase Utley suspended 2 games for slide that broke Ruben Tejada’s leg

“After thoroughly reviewing the play from all conceivable angles, I have concluded that Mr. Utley’s action warrants discipline,” MLB chief baseball officer Joe Torre said in a statement. “While I sincerely believe that Mr. Utley had no intention of injuring Ruben Tejada, and was attempting to help his club in a critical situation, I believe his slide was in violation of Official Baseball Rule 5.09 (a)(13), which is designed to protect from precisely this type of rolling block that occurs away from the base.”

The rule in question is this:

A batter is out when:

A preceding runner shall, in the umpire’s judgment, intentionally interfere with a fielder who is attempting to catch a thrown ball or to throw a ball in an attempt to complete any play.

Comment: 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 purpose of crashing the pivot man on a double play, rather than trying to reach the base. Obviously this is an umpire’s judgment play.

“As I said after the game, the determination of whether a baserunner has intentionally interfered with a player attempting to turn a double play is left to the judgment of the umpire on the field, and is not subject to review,” Torre addressed in his statement. “I should add that determining where to draw the line between an illegal slide and a legitimate hard play is an extremely difficult call for our umpires.”

Utley plans to appeal the suspension, which should get resolved quickly. Game 3 of the NLDS is Monday night at Citi Field in New York.

In any games Utley will miss, the Dodgers will be forced to play with 24 players instead of 25.

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly addressed the Utley slide earlier on Sunday, before the suspension was announced.

“From my assessment of it, you know, I look at it as a baseball play. It was a hard, aggressive, legal slide to me,” Mattingly said. “I thought their guy was, I thought -- you know, our organization is proud of the way Chase plays. We love the way he plays. He’s got a reputation for playing the game right, playing it hard, and we’re behind him 100 percent.”

The Mets released a statement regarding the suspension.

“The New York Mets completely support the decision made by Major League Baseball to suspend Chase Utley for two games and feel this was the appropriate course of action,” the Mets’ statement read. “With this decision behind us, the team and our fans can now focus on playing winning baseball.”