[Explicit] Hits The Fan in Texas!

Now THAT was the meltdown we were all expecting to see between the Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers as the bad blood from the American League Division Series clearly boiled over into this season. After six pretty chill, low-key games in the past couple of weeks between these two teams, this afternoon’s game completely blew up. 

So what the hell just happened?! 

“This has been brewin’ since last October!” – Pat Tabler. Uh, yeah, you think?!

I won’t spend too much time going through what happened in this game, but stuff started to heat up early when first base Tim Leiper was thrown out of the game for blowing up on the umpiring crew for not catching Cesar Ramos’ balk. Later on, Gibby was also booted from the game for arguing balls and strikes, as Aaron Sanchez’s strike zone didn’t seem to be as liberal as the one the Rangers’ pitchers were being given. 

ANYWAYS, it wasn’t until the eighth inning when things really blew up. With the Jays down 7-6, Matt Bush, ya know, the feel-good-story guy who injured someone in a drunk driving car crash in 2012 that Rangers’ fans are rallying around for some reason, intentionally drilled Jose Bautista with a first pitch fastball. 

On a side note, this was a really, really weird time to do the retaliation thing. They had already played each other six times in the past couple of weeks, it was a one-run game, their bullpen had been trash throughout the series, and they were basically just giving the Jays a great chance to come back in the game. Also, why the fuck is Matt Bush the guy getting back at Bautista? He wasn’t even a part of the Rangers’ organization when the two teams met in the playoffs last year. Is this just him trying really hard to fit in, or something? 

Both teams were warned, again, I’m not sure why, because the Jays pitchers weren’t intentionally throwing at anybody, but whatever. So after Edwin flew out, Justin Smoak grounded into a double play, and Bautista had a hard slide into Rougned Odor.

What to make of this? Geez. Look, if you’re that upset that somebody tossed their bat after hitting one of the biggest home run in franchise history, maybe you shouldn’t be playing a game for a living. If you don’t want somebody to get big hits, be better at the sport and strike them out. It’s as simple as that. Throwing at somebody, especially in the American League when you know you don’t have to bat is so lame and gutless. But what can you expect, the Rangers are trash. 

That’s how ya play tha game tha right way, eh!? Yah!