LOS ANGELES — For now and in the future, Manny Machado has painted a bull’s-eye on his back.
In a game that loves its heroes and despises its villains, Machado is fast becoming baseball’s No. 1 villain.
You can’t do much worse in one day than saying you are not going to be a hustling player, turning off the fans, and then being labeled a “dirty player’’ by your opponent, turning off your peers.
Mannyworld is the center of attention, heading into his free agency.
Despite hitting into double plays his first two times at the plate Wednesday, it all worked out for Machado and his Dodgers as Clayton Kershaw outpitched the bullpen-ing Brewers, 5-2, at Dodger Stadium to take a 3-2 lead in the NLCS.
The Dodgers can make their way back to the World Series with a win Friday night at Miller Park.
Machado will hear the boos then, as he is now Public Enemy No. 1. Whatever team he signs with, when he’s on the visiting team, Machado will be in the verbal crosshairs of the fans.
Will Machado be able to handle all that pressure?
There is no doubt that Machado has already cost himself untold millions of dollars with his comments and antics.
In Game 4 on Tuesday, Machado, who proclaimed he is not the type of player that is going to hustle to first on a ground ball, grounded to short in the 10th inning, and when he crossed the bag at first his left foot gave a kick to Brewers first baseman Jesus Aguilar’s plant foot.
Aguilar immediately got in Machado’s face and the benches emptied. The Brewers remained livid well after the game, with the usually mild-mannered Christian Yelich saying it was a “dirty play by a dirty player.’’
Yelich also threw some choice curse words in Manny’s direction saying, “F–k that mother—er.’’
Just imagine the reception Machado will get in Milwaukee for Game 6 on Friday.
Machado was fined $10,000 Wednesday by MLB for his left-foot kick of Aguilar, so clearly the league deemed it a dirty play. Tuesday night, Machado tried to play the innocent, saying, “You saw the replay, probably, I was trying to get over him and hit his foot. If that’s dirty, that’s dirty, I don’t know, call it what you want.’’
It’s dirty, Manny.
Players run through the first-base bag and avoid such collisions all the time, but Machado was in the middle of a frustrating day. He got the last laugh in the 13th inning when he came around to score from second on Cody Bellinger’s single to give the Dodgers a 2-1 win and even the NLCS at 2-2, ending the 5-hour, 15-minute affair.
Before Wednesday’s game, Brewers manager Craig Counsell said both teams were worrying about bigger things than Manny being Manny, and two wins away from the World Series, there were bigger concerns than the 10-inning incident. That was forgotten — to a degree.
It was fascinating to watch Machado’s first at-bat Wednesday. With two runners on and one out in the first, Machado went to the plate and, as is customary with a player’s first at-bat of the game, said hello to home-plate umpire Jim Wolf. As Machado came into the box, Milwaukee catcher Erik Katz walked out from behind the plate to his right, away from Machado, so he did not have to interact with the Dodgers star. In his third at-bat, Machado was hit by a pitch and took first and later scored.
Kratz’s move was a clear diss of Machado. Then Machado hit a slow bouncer to short that was turned into a double play, because as Machado told Ken Rosenthal, he is not about to be “Johnny Hustle’’ busting it down the line.
“We all want something to talk about and you guys do, too,” Counsell said before the game. “And that’s great. But, man, you know, there’s easy terms to put this day in and these next four days in that would center on accomplishing your dreams, that make that other stuff really pretty meaningless, and able to worry about it at a different time.’’
A different time is coming. This incident is far from over.
