MILWAUKEE—Emphasizing he was not going to apologize for playing hard, Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Manny Machado denied that he was a dirty player after a late slide into Corey Knebel on the pitcher’s mound. “I wasn’t trying to hurt him, that was just a normal spikes-first dive into someone’s shin at the pitcher’s mound. I’m just trying to win like everyone else,” said Machado, adding that it isn’t against the rules to throw a handful of dirt into a shortstop’s eyes on your way to third base. “All I was trying to do was make sure he wouldn’t be able to pitch for the rest of the playoffs. He’s doing his job and I am doing mine. If you think it’s dirty of me to bowl over a player trying to make a catch in right field, then call it dirty. I call it playing baseball.” At press time, Machado was trying to explain that charging the first baseman while swinging your bat was an “unwritten rule of the game.”

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