“I know I’m going to be suspended for a couple games”.
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Torre said it’s tough enough staying healthy in baseball without contributing to an incident that “could keep you out of the ball game or end your career”. Jose Bautista was plunked in apparent retaliation for his ALDS bat flip, then Bautista slid in hard at second base on a take-out slide.
Although Odor’s actions understandably rankled the Blue Jays, the 22-year-old Venezuelan said he respects Bautista and looks to move forward. You always anticipate (Bautista being hit by a pitch) might happen going in, that was the talk. I know he’s going to come hard.
“I can tell when someone is coming hard to second base”, Odor noted, “so I was just trying to protect myself”.
“It certainly wasn’t pretty, and I hate seeing that stuff”, Torre said of Sunday’s extracurricular activity. Bautista did slide in late and not obey by the new Major League Baseball rule but Odor had no right to punch Bautista and start a full out fight between both teams.
Rangers coach Steve Buechele, Blue Jays coach DeMarlo Hale and Jays pitcher Jesse Chavez were later ejected in the bottom of the eighth after Chavez the Rangers’ Prince Fielder with a pitch. I think you guys (reporters) are being a little one-sided on the view. “I was pretty into it”.
Banister refused to criticize Odor or Bautista.
“He was standing there after the slide, looking at me”, Odor said. I was like, ‘What’s up?’ He was close to me.
“I don’t hear nothing”, Odor said. “I don’t pay attention to what they say”. The blue shirt also displays the same image but with a “Make Baseball Fun Again” caption across the front, referring to a campaign led by Washington Nationals star Bryce Harper whose goal is to allow baseball players to show more emotion during games.
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“I don’t care about the other teams. I just play the game how I play it. I just play the game to win games”.
