Why? Probably because they didn’t want to piss off Bautista and then give him a chance to hit another home run.
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“Boys will be boys”, Price said late yesterday afternoon in the visitors clubhouse at Kauffman Stadium before the Red Sox’ series opener against the Kansas City Royals had been rained out. Of course, our losing two games here and then the three games, especially games four and five, in NY were insane. Odor’s punch landed after Matt Bush hit Bautista in the padding on his left elbow and the ball deflected down and hit Bautista in the hip.
Torre said he would issue a statement “hopefully” by Tuesday. The issue there, Torre said, is partially a cultural one.
Torre said he would meet Monday night with Joe Garagiola Jr. That would mean an eight-game suspension. Odor certainly struck hardest and he stayed aggressive after rocking Bautista, but it’s not like Bautista wasn’t squared up and putting hands in Odor’s face.
The game was the final one of the regular season between the two teams, who had played each other six times before that.
When Mariano Rivera came to Canada for the last game he would ever play in the Rogers Centre the entire crowd, Yankee fan and Jays fan alike, stood up and cheered him in celebration of his accomplishments. He plays it hard. We don’t wait until the seventh game…. “That’s the bottom line”.
That’s what happened with Odor and Bautista. 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. Did they tell Bush to hit Bautista during his last at-bat of the last game between the teams for the year? “Right now, I’m not going to go into talking about anything like that because there’s nothing to talk about yet”.
Jose Bautista’s bat flip in October is still stirring emotions. I could have injured (Odor) … I was like, ‘What’s up?’ He was close to me.
The punch that launched a million web hits followed. In the past, he has irritated Houston, San Francisco and the Los Angeles Dodgers with hard slides.
Banister said that the Rangers have contingency plans in place in case Odor is suspended, but he didn’t speculate as to what they might be.
“I’ve seen guys flip bats, not like these guys do now, but I’ve seen guys flip bats and they get hit and everybody moves on”, he said. I just care about my team. Any time I see a bunch of players out on the field (in a brawl), you just hold your breath.
And while he doesn’t see himself as a dirty player, he’s not concerned if others do. I know he’s going to come hard.
“That’s going to be the consequences of it”, the lefty ace said of Sunday’s brawl. “Things happen. It was ugly”.
Talk about making the best out of a bad situation.
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That particularly applies to the Rangers, if Odor is suspended.
