D-Backs’ Souza: ‘I play the game really hard’
LOS ANGELES – Steven Souza Jr.’s aggressive slide into third base in the fifth inning on Tuesday night drew an angry reaction from the Dodgers’ dugout, but the Diamondbacks right fielder wasn’t about to apologize for the play.
Souza slid hard into Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy on an attempted stolen base, then heard about it from the home dugout, including lefty Alex Wood, prompting Souza to yell back and gesture in response.
Souza’s argument on the field and in a postgame scrum with reporters was that he plays the game the same way the Dodgers’ Chase Utley plays it – hard – and he referenced Utley’s hard slide into Diamondbacks shortstop Nick Ahmed during a game at Chase Field last week.
“Chase Utley plays the game really hard; I play the game really hard,” Souza said. “I don’t see any difference in what he did to Nick and what I did there. I don’t know if he was trying to hit Nick on purpose, and I definitely wasn’t trying to get Max Muncy on purpose.
“We’ve got two teams that play really hard and these things happen. I don’t think there’s any ill will or anything. These things happen when you have two teams that play really, really hard.”
Utley slid hard into Ahmed on a force play at second last Thursday. Both Souza and Utley went feet first and directly into the legs of the defender. Souza conceded that his slide might have been late, but he insisted he wasn’t trying to hurt Muncy, his former Arizona Fall League teammate in 2013.
“I was caught in an awkward moment of trying to block the lane of the throw and didn’t really know what to do,” Souza said. “That was on me, if that was the case.”