I am placing this thread in here because I want to use it to relate to the Marisnick slide during the Royals series. I am not arguing whether or not Machado's slide was a dirty play or the eventual retaliation. I am just wondering how this wasn't an automatic DP? He slid similar to the way Jake did. It also was clearly not a DP ball (unlike more of a possibility during Jake's). That being said, the Astros were called for an automatic DP last year when the 2nd basemen had absolutely no intent to make a throw to first (I think it was a Rasmus slide last year). Am I missing something here? Here is the Machado slide: Here is the Marisnick slide:
But, the rule essentially says that the runner has to be able to grab the base which Jake was able to do. I think what Jake may have been called for is coming up into the second baseman as he came out of his slide. I just don't like that rule. Clearly Machado's resulted in a much worse situation for Pedroia and he started his slide at roughly the same point as Jake.
Didn't happen on the Rasmus slide last year. The second basemen just caught the throw and didn't even think about making a turn. Just seems to be applied inconsistently which makes it the same as most every other rule. C B Buckner was probably the umpire.