David Wright Unhappy With Chase Utley's Takeout Slide on Ruben Tejada

The Mets' season may be long over, but David Wright isn't happy with the way Chase Utley tried to break up a double play in Friday night's Phillies-Mets game. Utley took out rookie second baseman Ruben Tejada with a hard slide in the fifth inning, but couldn't keep Tejada from completing the double play.

When talking about the slide, Wright told reporters that, "There's a thin line between going out there and playing the game hard and going out there and trying to get somebody hurt."

Utley responded Saturday afternoon.

"I have never ever attempted to break up a double play with the intent to injure someone," he told MLB.com. "I understand what it's like to be taken out. I've been kicked, kneed, elbowed, spiked and even flipped upside down. And as much as I might not have liked it at the time, I understand that it's all part of being a Major League second baesman. Second basemen have had to deal with this for over 100 years. And with that said, we as a team play the game hard and play it to win. That is not going to change."

You can see the video for yourself at the MLB.com link above; it is an awfully hard slide and Utley's front knee doesn't come down until it's even with the bag. Which means that it appears Utley was aiming himself at Tejada (he's certainly not aiming at the bag) and he makes himself as big as possible to take out as much of Tejada as he can.

Hard slides at second base to break up double plays are pretty common practice, of course, but it's hard not to notice the things that the Mets took exception to with Utley's slide.

The other thing that's telling from the replay is the Phillies' broadcaster's feed. They immediately point out what a hard slide into second it was. When the hometown announcers seem to imply something's amiss, that's a pretty good sign that the slide was a little too hard.

To his credit, Tejada shook it off with the age old, "It's baseball," response.

In a late-season game with little on the line for either side now that the Mets are officially eliminated and the Phillies have the best record in the National League all but sewn up, perhaps Tejada's selling the play a little short. Given the late slide away from the base and Utley spreading himself out to nail Tejada, it actually looked a little more like football.