At the center of last night’s game between the San Diego Padres and Cincinnati Reds was a little controversy.
This came from a questionable slide into home by Luke Voit who was attempting to score on a line drive into the left field corner by Jurickson Profar.
Voit was out at the plate, but on the slide, he laid some contact onto Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson, causing him to leave the game with a concussion.
Padres manager Bob Melvin did his best to defend Voit and his slide after the game, but clearly wasn’t too pleased about the situation and the result, that being Stephenson’s concussion.
Padres manager Bob Melvin: "Melvin: “The ball takes him right into Luke. There's nowhere to go, and I think Luke was just trying to protect himself, putting his hands up, so I think they got it right.”
— C. Trent Rosecrans (@ctrent) April 20, 2022
A Dirty Slide
It seems as though Melvin is doing his best to understand that Stephenson had nowhere to go, but at the same time, the slide by Voit isn’t exactly a clean one.
Of course, he has to defend his players, so he can’t be faulted for that.
He even said that the umpires got the call right.
There most likely was no ill intent on Voit’s part, but the way he laid contact onto Stephenson doesn’t really help his cause, especially given that Stephenson now has a concussion and was forced to exit the game.
The Reds were understandably frustrated about the situation, with outfielder Tommy Pham, who was Voit’s teammate with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2017 and 2018, saying that he wants to fight Voit over the slide.
Clearly, there’s a little bad blood happening here, and it’s very likely that Voit will be punished in some way.
By Melvin’s comments, it’s easy to tell that he knows that the slide wasn’t a clean one, but he’s in a tough spot because he needs to protect his players.
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