The bad blood between Bautista and the Rangers dates to the last year’s AL Division Series matchup and Bautista’s boastful bat flip.
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In the final game of the season between the two teams, Texas second baseman Rougned Odor punched Jose Bautista in the face after a hard slide from the Toronto slugger to stop a double play at the top of the eighth inning. More intriguing is whether Bautista gets any punishment for his aggressive slide into Odor, leading the volatile second baseman to sock him with a right, and bringing about the chaos.
Umpires needed about 10 minutes to restore order, and Blue Jays reliever Jesse Chavez hit Prince Fielder with the next pitch when the game resumed. It started when Matt Bush hit Jose Bautista near the chest and it looked intentional.
After order was restored, Bautista and Odor both were ejected from the game, as was former A’s third baseman Josh Donaldson of the Blue Jays and Rangers’ bench coach Steve Buechele.
“The way he plays is well received in this clubhouse, ” Beltre said. Sparky had to hold me back. Odor shoved Bautista, creating enough space to wind up and catch the lunging Blue Jays right-fielder flush on the jaw with a punch. Did Bautista go over the line?
Texas manager Jeff Banister said, “I think it was just two hard-nosed baseball teams that play the game hard”.
Both will be suspended, but Odor’s suspension must be significantly longer.
“I’ve seen black-and-white films, and I saw Babe Ruth rounding second base, taking his hat off, waving his hat to the crowd and everything”. Gibbons called the Rangers “gutless” for waiting until Bautista’s last at-bat in their last meeting of the season to throw at him. It’s more or less inarguable that the way they went about it was a total disaster. But that’s not the world we live in now. “You’re just hoping everybody comes out of it (healthy)”.
MLB chief baseball officer Joe Torre said discipline is coming for those involved in the melee, “hopefully” as soon as Tuesday. The bat flip and all the playoff yapping had been answered. You see what happened.
Gibbons, who returned to the field Sunday after being ejected for arguing earlier in the game, said Monday that he has yet to hear about any suspensions.
The New York Yankees will get Alex Rodriguez and CC Sabathia back from the disabled list this week.
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Odor said that he was trying to protect himself, that he didn’t regret anything that happened even though he knows he’ll be suspended, and that it was just part of the game.
