Matt Hollday's potentially dirty takeout slide
After this slide in the first inning of Monday's NLCS matchup between the Cardinals and Giants, all of the talk was about one play: Matt Holliday's slide into second base with one out. With men on first and second, Allen Craig of the Cardinals hit a ground ball to short that Brandon Crawford threw to Marco Scutaro to force out Holliday. As Scutaro was throwing the ball to first base, Holliday performed a vicious takeout slide on him, deliberately turning his body 90 degrees and throwing his full body weight into Scutaro's front leg. The Giants didn't get the out at first, but Vogelsong would get a groundout from Yadier Molina three pitches later to end the inning. Scutaro would leave the game after the fifth inning (and three at bats), but hip x-rays were negative. The off day between games two and three should help him a ton.
I'm not saying that Holliday's slide is dirty, bush league, or worth a fine and/or suspension. But it was definitely more questionable than last spring's slide by Scott Couins at home plate that broke Buster Posey's leg. Giants fans will probably cry foul, Cardinals fans will claim it's just good ol' fashioned baseball, and fans of the other 28 teams will be somewhere in the middle. I've seen an uproar about more clean plays, and I've seen a muted reaction to dirtier plays.
It'll be interesting to see if the MLB discipline cabal will come down on Holliday, just to "make a statement" during October playoff baseball. Anything more than a slap on the wrist would be an injustice in my mind.
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I'm a Cards fan who said instantly that it was dirty. I was working at the time and can't say which player was involved, but in a later inning there was another play at second that made me ask was arm tackling to break up a DP legal and it was also a Cardinal and looked almost dirty also.
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I'm as much as a Cards fan as you can get, and my first thought was "Damn, Holliday." He started the slide late for sure, intentionally or not (I'm leaning towards not since he went to check on Scutaro right afterward). You can break up a double play, but try not to break anyone in the process.
