LOS ANGELES — The bad blood between the Dodgers and D-backs boiled again Wednesday after a late takeout slide of Los Angeles second baseman Jerry Hairston by Arizona’s Paul Goldschmidt.
Hairston wasn’t seriously injured, but he took exception, calling the slide dirty and calling for Goldschmidt to be disciplined.
“He should be suspended. It’s totally unacceptable,” the 15-year veteran Hairston said about Goldschmidt, in his first full season in the Major Leagues. “He jumped over the bag to get to me. He was seven feet past the bag. It was terrible.”
The play occurred with one on and no outs in the top of the eighth inning. Justin Upton grounded to shortstop Hanley Ramirez, who threw to Hairston at second for the force and the collision. Hairston remained in the game for the rest of the inning, then left with a bruised right shin. Mark Ellis took over at second in the ninth.
Goldschmidt was called out by second-base umpire Manny Gonzalez but was not called for interfering with the Dodgers’ attempt to turn a double play.
“I didn’t realize he was upset until later,” Goldschmidt said. “My thinking is Justin hit that ground ball and they could possibly turn a double play, [so] go in there and break it up. Obviously you’re not trying to hurt anyone, but you’re in there trying to make it so he can’t get the throw off. Hopefully he’s all right.”
In May, Ellis was seriously injured on a similar slide by St. Louis’ Tyler Greene, requiring emergency surgery to relieve swelling and resulting in more than six weeks on the disabled list. Greene apologized to Ellis when the Dodgers were in St. Louis last week, but Ellis said he never felt that slide was an intentional attempt to hurt him.
Hairston told a different story.
“Luckily I did everything right,” said Hairston, who spun and pulled his leg at impact. “When Upton hit me [on a fifth-inning double-play], it was totally clean. What Goldschmidt did was unacceptable. I looked at the video. It was atrocious. If Major League Baseball doesn’t suspend him, it’s unbelievable.
“The guy at first [Upton] should have been out for that. He [Goldschmidt] actually started the slide after the bag. He got me good. You know, play the game right. Major League Baseball says it watches every game. If they watched this game, he gets suspended. He’s a big part of their team, but he hasn’t been around the game long enough. He’s got to know better than that. He could have broken my leg.”
Some Dodgers suspected that Goldschmidt was motivated by a previous at-bat, when Dodgers reliever Javy Guerra took over for starter Stephen Fife with one out and a runner on first base in the fifth inning and drilled Goldschmidt in the shoulder with his first pitch. During the series, Goldschmidt was a one-man wrecking crew, going 8-for-12 with two homers, five RBIs and four runs scored.
In May, ace pitchers Ian Kennedy of Arizona and Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers exchanged brush-back pitches, the animosity apparently left over from last September when Kershaw got into it verbally after D-backs outfielder Gerardo Parra homered off Hong-Chih Kuo and watched it from the plate. The next night, Kershaw hit Parra with a pitch and was ejected.
Ken Gurnick is a reporter for MLB.com. Reporter Steve Gilbert contributed to this story. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
