Dylan Bundy Dominates Red Sox, But Is Overshadowed By Manny Machado's Slide
The Orioles beat the Red Sox last night by the score of 2-0 to put their record at 11-4, best in the bigs. Dylan Bundy pitched another absolute gem (7 IP, 6 H, 1 BB, 3 K, 0 R), Manny Machado launched his third homer of the season, and Brad Brach looked unhittable AGAIN and notched his third save in three attempts. Too bad all of that was overshadowed by an out at second base.
Fast forward to the bottom to the eighth with Manny on first. Trumbo grounds into a fielders choice to Xander Bogaerts, Bogaerts goes to second for the force out. Dustin Pedroia is extended like a first baseman receiving the ball. It appears that Manny Machado beats the throw, but also looks like he slid in a little late. You could see Macho’s foot hit the front of the bag, causing his foot to pop up and into Dustin Pedroia’s calf. Pedroia gets spiked, hits the deck, but not before Machado comes off the bag and attempts to hold up Pedroia. Watch for yourself.
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Yes it looks bad, he obv got him with the spikes. But if you think that was on purpose and dirty, you’re wrong. If Manny was really trying to take out Pedroia, would he had tried to catch him as he was falling? No chance, if you’re going after someone’s legs with metal spikes, you don’t care if they fall. Why would Manny grab Dustin’s dick if he just tried to hurt him on purpose?
Pedroia was helped off after this play, but lets be real. The guy is tough as nails, he’ll be back in the lineup tomorrow and probably go 3-5. So yes, I can understand why Boston players, John Farrell, and fans on twitter were mad. But watch it again, slow it down. Look here at where Manny begins his slide….
The bag isn’t even in the frame when Manny is over halfway through his slide…
Manny is now maybe 5 feet from the bag when it appears in the frame. Still not sure how this is a dirty slide.
He’s not fully extended and not even at the bag yet….
I know Jared said his foot started to come up before it got to the base. Notice Manny’s knee, it starts to buckle and fold. It is coming up because his cleat hits the dirt.
Notice here where Manny’s foot hits the top of the bag, propelling his foot back and to the left. Again, the foot goes back, and to the left. 
Manny clearly spiked him, but that is because his foot hit the front of the base and shot forward. No way this was intentional. But it does look bad. Also, Pedroia has his whole foot on the bag… I saw Jared said that Manny turned his foot at the last second. You, reading this, slide on your mothers carpet floor right now, and show me what your foot does as you slide. What’s that? It starts to turn because your body is like “oh shit, I have to stand up!”. Your body is getting ready to pop up, so your foot automatically angles itself to be in a ready position to pop up. It’s science. 
How about this slide from Pablo back in 2015, that John Farrell said was clean, “It was a good clean, hard slide to break up the double play,” the manager said.” But Manny slides wayyyyy before Pablo, and Boston wants his head on a plate.
Chase Utley, dirty, late slide.
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Manny’s slide wasn’t close to as bad as Jose Bautista’s was against Odor last season. I also just wanted to put this in here because I can’t get enough of watching that loser get his teeth knocked in.
I can get why Boston is upset it wasn’t automatically ruled a double play. Manny slid over the back and didn’t maintain contact with it, which by rule could have resulted in the double play. But also, Pedroia wasn’t even trying to turn two, he is receiving the ball like a first baseman, there is no way Dustin was turning two on that. But it wasn’t a dirty slide, let alone a late slide. It wasn’t malicious, and he didn’t set out to hurt Pedroia. Hard slide? Sure, late and dirty? No way. Again, look at where Manny starts his slide. Hard slides are legal in baseball, there is a difference between a hard slide and a late slide. Manny laid down to slide with plenty of space between himself and the bag, and unfortunately his cleat popped up and caught Dustin. The play didn’t end up costing the Red Sox anymore runs, besides for Pedroia leaving the game (his spot didn’t bat in the ninth), it was a non-factor.
Now I know some of the Sox were huffing and puffing in the dugout, and rightfully so, they probably didn’t see a replay, and I read that after the game they were breaking it down frame-by-frame like I did above. Maybe worry about why your offense has scored 6 runs in the last 3 games, instead of trying to figure out where you’re going to hit a guy because of a slide you assume was on dirty and on purpose.
And it stinks that idiots will bring up Manny throwing a bat when he was 21 years old. He was an idiot back then, it was stupid of him to do that, and no Orioles fans stuck up for him when he did it, I wish he had gotten knocked in the face for that. But that will always be brought up because of how dumb it was. Just because he threw a bat 4 years ago doesn’t make him a dirty player now. As a guy with 2 shitty knees who will play shortstop this season and in the future and will be around those type of plays, why would he do that, knowing that it puts a target on his back?
Now I know he’ll probably wear one from someone of the Sox staff, made not this series, but next. It’s coming, he knows it, I know it, you know it. But that’s just dumb. I get “protecting your guys”, but this was a hard baseball play, not a dirty one. These damn unwritten rules of baseball are so damn dumb. Hopefully Manny wears the fastball to the ribs from Porcello next series, and we forget all about it.
Final verdict- Not malicious, not late, but a hard slide.
Let’s debate this more over on the twitters. @BarstoolRDT