Why The San Francisco Giants Will Benefit From Matt Holliday’s Aggressive Slide

Oct 15, 2012; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants second baseman Marco Scutaro (top) attempts to complete a double play as St. Louis Cardinals left fielder Matt Holliday (bottom) collides during game two of the 2012 NLCS at AT

It’s not like this year’s National League Championship series needed more drama. I mean we already have a dream match up as some would say. Or more specifically  a match up between the masters of the comeback, with the two masters being the San Francisco Giants and St.Louis Cardinals. But a little drama surely won’t do any harm. And drama was precisely what was added to the fire during Game 2 of the NLCS when Matt Holliday took out Marco Scutaro on a slide.

Let it be known that second basemen are vulnerable to contract from oncoming runners, particularly when they’re trying to complete double plays. They’re coming over to revive the ball from the left side of the infield, and have absolutely no clue as to where the runner will hit them, if at all.

And boy did Holliday hit Scutaro on Monday night. The shortstop Brandon Crawford fielded a clean, easy grounder, and tossed what appeared to be a routine throw to Scutaro, yet Scutaro found himself with dirt in his mouth just two outs into the game. OK, he didn’t take a full-on face plant, but his left hip certainly took some grief.

And Scutaro didn’t get hit by Pete Kozma or Jon Jay; he was clobbered by Matt Holliday who is about 240 pounds of sheer muscle.

While you never want to assume there was intent behind any ferocious hit, Holliday certainly looked poised to knock Scutaro on his behind. And certainly not with a nice and smooth landing. Instead, Scutaro’s body was wrangled up with Holliday’s body. Holliday came out unscathed, while Scutaro was shaken.

A hit of such was foreseeable as Holliday marched down the base-path between first and second base. Let me remind you that this is a battle for the National League pennant, not a laid back series in May. Players are competing to the best of their respective abilities, and sometimes, that calls for aggression.  But back to the point, Holliday wanted to break up the double play, but he did just a bit more damage than that.

Of course no one is going to say anything to spark up any further actions, but the sense from people associated with the Giants, was that it Holliday’s slide was a hard and late hit. Manager Bruce Bochy went as far to consider it an illegal hit. Others, well, were a bit laid back about the topic, saying that Holliday didn’t have any intentions of injuring Scutaro, but he could’ve slid earlier to avoid a collision. There’s not much else to say, really.

Of course Holliday was very sincere about the subject to reporters during his post game interviews. Did you actually think that he would come out saying that he was trying to injure Scutaro if that’s what he had in mind?

What shouldn’t be forgotten here, is that Holliday has a track record of going hard into second base. It’s doubtful that his goal is to injure anyone, but earlier in the year, he basically did the same thing to Starlin Castro. The only difference was that Castro was coming from the left side of the infield. So he had a bit more vision of the oncoming chaos, yet Holliday found a way to tip him over.

That’s just something to ponder upon. But back to Monday night’s slide.

Holliday described the play like this via the San Jose Mercury News, “In hindsight, I wish I would have started my slide a step earlier. It was happening fast and you’re trying to get to him so he can’t turn the double play. Obviously, I hope he’s OK. I know him. He’s a good guy. Obviously, I wasn’t trying to do anything other than keep us out of a double play.”

Sounds accurate. The thing is, he can say all he wants to say to the media, but realistically, he has already lit a flame that might’ve not existed had he slid in a bit cleaner.

So in a way, the dirty play benefitted the Giants. Sure, that’s probably hard to believe considering that Scutaro’s status for Wednesday’s Game 3 is questionable, but this is more of mental thing.

Simply put, they want revenge. This probably wouldn’t have been the case had Scutaro not left the game in the fifth inning. Apparently he was very resistant to leaving Game 2, but he was obviously in a lot of pain, consistently shaking out his left leg on defense.

The X-rays on Scutaro’s left hip were negative, however, you don’t have to be a doctor to say that he will be extremely sore for the next few days. When he continued to play last night, he was riding nothing but adrenaline. There’s no adrenaline pumping when he wakes up in the morning.

There was good news coming out of San Francisco on Tuesday, though. It turns out that the wobbly Scutaro made the flight to St.Louis on Tuesday morning.

Should the Giants be somewhat thankful that Holliday lit up their clubhouse? Definitely. However, Scutaro is banged up. Are they thankful for that? Heck no.