Manny Machado becoming a playoff villain should come as no surprise to Sox fans originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Loyal Dodgers, we feel your pain.
Losing as a heavy favorite in the postseason is one thing. Losing to your archrivals is something else. But losing to Manny Machado? That’s suffering on a scale greater than any fanbase should have to endure.
With all due respect to Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole and the rest of the Yankees, if there’s one player left in this postseason that Red Sox fans can’t stand, it’s Machado.
He’s annoying, an instigator, and a pushover, and that’s bad enough. But he’s also the player who ended Dustin Pedroia’s career at least five years early, which could cost the former MVP a spot in the Hall of Fame.
Watching Machado legally stray from the baseline and into that gray area he calls home Tuesday night brought back painful memories. The play produced a six-run second that lifted the Padres to a 6-5 victory over the Dodgers and a 2-1 series lead before a delirious Petco Park broke into chants of “BEAT LA!” echoed. (a sentiment we can otherwise get behind).
“You can’t judge interference or obstruction. Once it wasn’t called, they couldn’t do it anymore.”
The crew pauses play from the 2nd inning when Manny Machado was hit by the ball on Freddie Freeman’s throw to second base pic.twitter.com/8VImcWdavl
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 9, 2024
It seemed like a blatant rule violation, and many Dodgers agreed. But Machado actually played smart, as he gets to create his own running lane when he’s not trying to avoid a tap. By moving to the infield grass, he placed himself directly in line with Freddie Freeman’s throw from first base, who was looking through his back into the outfield.
Instead of a force out and a possible 3-6-1 double play, the Padres had two on and no one out. When Fernando Tatis pumped the plunger on the game-breaking two-run homer to complete the uprising a handful of batters later, the impact of Machado’s play was on full display.
Just as Bill Belichick bewildered the Ravens in the playoffs a decade ago with eligible tackles and then smugly insinuated that he had outwitted Baltimore counterpart John Harbaugh, Machado followed the letter of the law, if not necessarily the spirit of it.
“Yeah, I mean, I just know the rules,” Machado told reporters, his grin audible. “I’m just trying to make it a tough throw as he goes to second base. This is the first time it’s ever happened to me. We’ve been doing it for years. I’ve been doing it since I was back in the day in Baltimore with Buck (Showalter). So you just have to know the rules and what to do there.
Invoking Baltimore made the Red Sox connection even more painfully direct.
Finally, in 2017, a young Machado jabbed Pedroia in an attempt to break up a double play. Like most things with Machado, the slide crossed a line, but it wasn’t clearly egregious until replays showed him subtly lifting his spike to hit the back of Pedroia’s knee. Because the second baseman had planted clumsily to take Xander Bogaerts’ relay from deep in the hole, the cartilage protecting his femur and shin paid the price.
Pedroia made it out the rest of that season, even hitting .295, but the damage was already done. Surgery required surgeries, and Pedroia played just nine more games. He retired in 2021 and underwent a partial knee replacement that will affect him for the rest of his life. That’s the Manny Machado effect, though Pedroia says he’s made peace with it.
That’s an extreme example, but it fits the pattern. When Machado crosses boundaries, he tends to cross them rather than erase them. For example, during Sunday’s Game 2, he threw a ball toward the Dodgers’ dugout between innings. Enraged LA players thought he had taken aim at manager Dave Roberts, perhaps in retaliation for Tatis taking a fastball off the hip.
Replays showed both that A), Machado threw the ball harder than necessary, and B) that Roberts was never in any real danger. That didn’t stop right-hander Jack Flaherty from yelling at Machado from the top step and suggesting to Roberts that Machado had targeted him.
“I throw balls in the dugouts all the time, both dugouts,” Machado said innocently, another plausible denial from his friend.
It’s something that would be absolutely infuriating if it weren’t… no, it’s just absolutely infuriating. The Padres may be the bigger Cinderella story in light of the superstar-laden demolition Dodgers, but sorry, Boston just can’t support Machado.
Go, LA! Go, LA!
