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Rougned Odor, Jose Bautista brawl at second base

Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor and Jays outfielder Jose Bautista legitimately fought after a collision at second base

By Adam J. Morris
Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

Rougned Odor and Jose Bautista brawl.  Texas Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor and Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista got into a true, legitimate brawl today -- not one of those baseball "fights" where everyone mills about, but a true fist-throwing fight.

Bautista was plunked to lead off the top of the 8th by reliever Matt Bush, and seemed to think it was on purpose...when Bush was pulled, Bautista glared at him when he left the field.  With one out and Bautista on first, Jake Diekman induced Justin Smoak to hit a grounder to third base.  Adrian Beltre threw cleanly to second, but Bautista went after Odor's knees with a takeout slide that resulted in the ball being thrown wildly.  Odor shoved Bautista, who got into Odor's face...and then Odor threw the greatest punch I've ever seen in a baseball fight:

It was truly astonishing.  Benches cleared, Jeff Banister was yelling at people, Blue Jays manager John Gibbons (who had already been ejected) came back on the field.  Odor, Bautista, DeMarlo Hale, Josh Donaldson, and Steve Buechele were thrown out of the game.

Then, after the dust had settled, the umpires ruled that there was a double play because of interference by Bautista, and thus the inning ended.  Prince Fielder, leading off the bottom of the 8th, was then plunked by Jesse Chavez, resulting in Chavez getting ejected and the benches clearing again.

From the Rangers' standpoint, they look like they're going to be without their regular second baseman for a while...Odor is almost certainly looking at something like a 10-14 day suspension for throwing that punch.  Odor is known or being chippy and in-your-face anyway, but this was a perfect storm...he'd been victimized by a hard slide earlier in the game, where the Rangers asked for a review on interference, had struck out three times, is in the midst of a bad slump, and had made a couple of bad plays in the field.  Odor was, I suspect, a lit keg of TNT...and when Bautista decided to send a message with a dirty slide after being hit, he lit the match and set it off.

Here's a tweet with a Vine of the Bautista slide...

Here's video from the Jays feed, which shows a great angle of the late slide, and then the punches being exchanged:

And of course, because it had to be done...