Rougned Odor punches José Bautista in the face, a breakdown

Apr 4, 2020 3.0M views 5:34

What Happened

Jomboy breaks down the May 15, 2016 brawl between the Blue Jays and Rangers at Globe Life Park, the final game of the season series. With Bautista batting in the eighth inning and Texas still stewing over his iconic bat flip in the prior fall's ALDS, Rangers reliever Matt Bush plunked him. Bautista answered with a late, hard slide into Rougned Odor at second base to break up a double play. When they got up and squared off, Odor landed a clean right hand flush on Bautista's jaw, knocking off his helmet and sparking a full benches-clearing fight.

Why This Matters

This is one of the cleanest punches you'll ever see in a baseball fight, and the backstory is what made it inevitable. Texas felt humiliated by Bautista's bat flip in Game 5 of the 2015 ALDS, and they waited until the very last game between the teams to settle it. Bautista's slide into Odor was ruled illegal under the new takeout-slide rule installed that offseason, so the Blue Jays got called for interference and the runner was out. Odor served an eight-game suspension, reduced from the original ban after appeal. Bautista got a one-game penalty for his role. The fight defined the rivalry for years and remains the snapshot fans bring up whenever the two franchises meet. Adrian Beltre playing peacemaker by bear-hugging Bautista is the underrated subplot.

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Key Moments

Who / What Is Involved

Players: Rougned Odor.

alright strap in this one's gonna be longer than usual here is jose bautista 'he's final at-bat vs Texas in 2016 why is this important because the playoffs before he did this after hitting a huge home run and they were so disrespected by it wow you can't be showing us up like that we hate you in Texas now and stuff like that so this is the sixth game these teams played against each other the next season this is the eighth inning it's the last at-bat Batista's gonna have versus the Rangers if they're gonna get any payback they should have done it already I don't know why they late it's waited so long but here you go they hit him like I told you what did I talk to [ __ ] told you I told you he was in a hit I'm like everywhere all the fans are so excited they just hated this dude probably still got probably still hate this guy because oh oh no no no no we like that we like that we like that mom oh okay look at these these suckers society we're weird society look at this just so excited to see him get yeah yeah whoo so that puts him on first base looking good with his lips and his sunglasses smoke rolls one over to second Oh door grabs it and then Batista comes in hard to break up the DoublePlay he does break up the double play but they call them out I think anyway here it is now at this point right at this point it's on look at them they are staring each other in the eye but Tisa's leaning forward they got up they know it's on and then the big shove and...