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LOS ANGELES – That's all you need to know about Manny Machado's blatant violation of the code of conduct for players at the Dodgers call: he was severely named by Christian Yelich, his best player at the Milwaukee Brewers ,.
"The guy showed the world his true colors," said Yelich after the Dodgers had survived Milwaukee, 2-1, in 13 innings for even the two-game National League Championship Series . Machado scored the winning goal, but this match will follow him as a newsprint because of the way he cut the leg of Milwaukee's first baseman, Jesus Aguilar, while he was missing what should have been a routine.
For Yelich and the Brewers and for anyone who gives an unbiased look at the video, it appeared that Machado had deliberately hit Aguilar with his left leg.
"It's a dirty room," Yelich said. "Dude, you just nailed down. We have all failed. Run in the bag as in the rest of the world.
"There is no room for that in the game. None. It's the post-season! It's amazing, really. There is no room for this in the game.
"He has a story. Does it happen once with him? It's an accident? The fourth or the fifth time? It's intentional.
Give credit to Yelich for stepping up and talking honestly. When Brewers' third baseman, Mike Moustakas, was questioned about the game, he took the veteran's politically correct avoidance tactic. "I was all along the third goal," he said while recusing hearings. This is the way most players handle such incidents: moan privately, but do not take a stand publicly. This is the easy way.
Not Yelich. He was in the right field, even farther from the game than Moustakas. But like all other Brewers members, with screens all over the house, he watched the broadcast and saw something so obnoxious from Machado who could not remain silent.
"I do not care," Yelich told me. "I'll say it to anyone."
Already a bitter, competitive and extremely fierce series, the NLCS has exploded from match failure to reluctantly match. When I asked him if he thought the Machado incident would continue in today's fifth match, Yelich said, "It's the post-season. I do not know about it. "
Nobody wants to risk a playoff game by making a punishment, although you can be certain that one day the Brewers will return to Machado, a free agent whose reputation could make some clubs think about buying from his sublime talents in baseball.
In 2014, he was involved in a fight triggered by his altercation on the bases with Josh Donaldson. The same year, he was suspended for throwing a bat in the direction of pitcher Fernando Abad. In 2016, he instructed the mound to leave after the late Yordano Ventura. In 2017, he later joined Boston second baseman Dustin Pedroia, injuring Pedroia and setting off a bean ball war with the Red Sox.
Before the third game, he had told FS1 that he had not run the ground in the second game because he had never been a "Johnny Hustle". Then, in this match, he twice scored slides in the second goal which was, by definition, illegal – one was deemed interference and the other was not penalized by the fact that Orlando Arcia, the The Brewers' shortstop finished second while Machado slipped, did not attempt to throw to first base for a double play, a prerequisite for such a call.
It was 10th Tuesday night, with an exit and no one at the base, when Machado scored a routine shot at Arcia, who threw to Aguilar to easily remove Machado. It was not a tight game. But with Aguilar's big foot still on the bag – Aguilar measures 6 "and 315 pounds – Machado stepped on Aguilar's foot with his right foot and then dragged his left foot on the lower leg Aguilar.
Aguilar was immediately an exception and the benches quickly emptied because of the combative postures of each one of them. Machado then spoke at length with Aguilar to the first goal in the 13th after reaching one.
"We are all family," said Machado, trying to rebuff any controversy.
Well, no, even though Machado sent a pre-match birthday cake to his long-time friend and former Orioles teammate, Jonathan Schoop, second-tier player at the Brewers. These teams are not a big happy family, not now.
"He's a long time in the bag," said Justin Turner, Dodgers third baseman, about Aguilar defending his teammate. "I already touched him. As Manny has said, he is not going to walk on the edge of the bag and is likely to turn his ankle back over the bag. "
Brewers do not buy it. They saw many bags so that Machado could simply touch and browse without incident.
It was an absolute game. It was 315 minutes. Why is it so hard to hit today, especially in these games with so much at stake? There were 32 strikeouts and only 15 hits. There were 16 throwers, including Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who took the win on his team because Julio Urias was his big man – a kid who had just had a shoulder operation and who was n & # 39; He had not made more than 44 three-run throws since returning to the rookie ball in August. Urias has launched only one round.
You can moan if you wish about the "swinging for the fence" batters and all those punches. But one pitcher after another brought foul things to the mound, including a boat filled with brittle bullets. Few throwers defy anyone with fast balls in what was once fast ball count. Finely calibrated defensive teams have engulfed what would have been touched for a hundred years. There was no mistake on more than five hours of baseball.
No, this game was not an opportunity to say how much the "launching angles" ruin the game. It was just an exhibition, although very long, about how baseball was played in 2018. It's hard to play a ball against the growing army of evil pitchers who throw, and hard to get a shot, even when you do it.
But all this aesthetic and strategic drama blurred in the background simply because of a play, and if before the game you guessed which player could be involved in any controversy, Machado would have was a very good first hypothesis. The guy is a talented player who finds himself too often at the center of a storm. When this happens again and again, you start to wonder if it's East storm.
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