Chase Utley Suspended for Games 3 and 4

Chase Utley has been suspended for the next two games of the NLDS.

LAD INF Utley has been suspended for Games 3 & 4 of NLDS as a result of his illegal slide in the 7th inning on Sat. pic.twitter.com/ktAjmXWFaR

— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) October 12, 2015

I imagine none of you are going to like this, and it certainly removes some of the fascination with what is going to happen tomorrow night. I’m pretty sure you can argue the point back and forth endlessly — it’s hard to defend a play that looked bad and ended with Ruben Tejada breaking his leg, yet similar plays have been happening for years — and I won’t attempt to answer the question of right or wrong here.

What this does mean — unless Utley appeals, which he can, though I imagine that would be resolved very quickly (Update: He will appeal) — is that the Dodgers would now be a 24-man roster, because suspended players can’t be replaced. That impacts late-inning pinch-hitting options, though not the defense as much as you’d think, not with Justin Turner, Corey Seager, and Enrique Hernandez all able to play multiple infield positions.