Jose Bautista’s on-field antics reached a boiling point with Rougned Odor Sunday afternoon.
Bautista performed a takeout slide at second base on a potential double play ball -- now a violation of MLB rules -- in the eighth inning of Sunday’s matinee outing in Arlington.
And he paid the price in the form of the most legendary moment in Rangers brawl history since Nolan Ryan beat the tar out of Robin Ventura.
Odor shoved the Blue Jays’ right fielder before landing a haymaker right on Bautista’s left cheek. Here it is, in GIF form:
Rougie’s right hook took out the frustrations with Bautista that have been percolating within Rangers fans ever since Bautista’s bat-flip-heard-round-the-world last October.
Joey Bats infamously took down the Rangers with a three-run home run in the unfortunate seventh inning of ALDS Game 5 last year, emphatically flipping his bat as the ball sailed into the stands at the Rogers Centre.
On Sunday, Matt Bush plunked Bautista with a 97 mph fastball -- likely not intentional in the eighth inning of a one-run ballgame.
Bautista tried to take out Odor at second base on a 5-4-3 double play in progress. According to Rule 7.14, a runner cannot “initiate (or attempt to make) contact with the fielder for the purpose of breaking up a double play,” or else the umpire should rule both the runner and the batter out.
Despite Odor’s errant throw to first, the double play was called.
And that’s when the fireworks started flying. Odor clocked the Toronto slugger, and the benches cleared. Ian Desmond, who hit the go-ahead three-run bomb (and added his own enthusiastic bat flip) in the seventh inning, was asked on the Fox Sports Southwest broadcast what he remembers of the brawl.
“I blacked out,” he told Jim Knox.
Odor and Bautista were ejected from the game, along with Rangers bench coach Steve Buechele and Toronto's Josh Donaldson, DeMarlo Hale and Jesse Chavez.
Ejections from Jays-Rangers incident: Rougned Odor, Steve Buechele, Jose Bautista, Josh Donaldson, DeMarlo Hale, Jesse Chavez.
— MLB (@MLB) May 15, 2016
A bevvy of fines and possible suspensions likely loom for both squads, too. That probably won’t keep any Rangers fan from watching Odor’s channel his inner Mayweather on Bautista’s face for the foreseeable future, though.
See full video of the melee at Globe Life Park below or here.
