A benches-clearing fracas ensued in Arlington, Texas in the eighth inning of Sunday’s series finale between the Blue Jays and Rangers. The two clubs aren’t the best of friends after Jose Bautista’s infamous bat flip, but the peace had been kept in the six previous meetings between the two teams this season.
That changed on Sunday. Rangers pitcher Matt Bush hit Bautista with a fastball and that earned both teams a warning. Later in the inning, against Jake Diekman, Justin Smoak hit an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play. Bautista, who has already been on the wrong end of a slide into second base, slid late into Rougned Odor. Odor was not happy about it, so he took a few swings at Bautista. One of the punches hit Bautista square in the jaw, sending the outfielder’s sunglasses flying off of his face. Both benches emptied and chaos ensued.
Here’s the video:
[mlbvideo id="700996283" width="600" height="336" /]
The next inning, Blue Jays pitcher Jesse Chavez drilled Prince Fielder with a first-pitch fastball and immediately walked towards the dugout, knowing he would be ejected. The benches emptied again but peace was more quickly restored.
As mentioned in the first post on the subject, Odor, Bautista, Bush, and Jesse Chavez are likely looking at fines and possible suspensions.
Marcus Stroman tweeted during the game that he has “zero respect” for Odor and “never will.”
