San Diego Padres manager Jayce Tingler launched into a strong defense of Manny Machado over Machado’s controversial slide on Sunday night.
Machado received some criticism for a slide into Cardinals second baseman Tommy Edman during Sunday night’s game. Machado slid into Edman as he was preparing to throw, though they were nowhere near the base.
Here's the full Manny Machado slide play for more context pic.twitter.com/8MDtdzqVu3
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) May 17, 2021
Machado never actually left the basepath, so no rules were broken. It didn’t stop the accusations of Machado being dirty.
Tingler wasn’t having it. He criticized the “narrative” around Machado and said he praised his third baseman for making a winning play.
Jayce Tingler on Machado's slide "The first thing I did was give him a high-five, …it was a play that won us the game…it's a clean play, it's a weird narrative. For people to have such a crazy take, that it's acceptable to give up, that it's acceptable to not try"
— Marty Caswell (@MartyCaswell) May 17, 2021
Safe to say Jayce Tingler is tired of the tired narrative that Manny Machado seems to trigger.
"It's a tired narrative. It's so tired."
— Marty Caswell (@MartyCaswell) May 17, 2021
Machado comes with a reputation for making dirty plays. Tingler is right that there’s a narrative here, though it isn’t undeserved. That said, if this was someone other than Machado, this play probably doesn’t even get a second look. Even Edman seemed fine with it based on his reaction as he was getting up.
