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Texas Rangers Deliver KO, Win Testy Series Vs. Toronto

By Ben Davila

May 13, 2016; Arlington, TX, USA; Texas Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor (12) reacts to an inside pitch during a baseball game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Globe Life Park in Arlington. The Blue Jays won 5-0. Mandatory Credit: Jim Cowsert-USA TODAY Sports
May 13, 2016; Arlington, TX, USA; Texas Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor (12) reacts to an inside pitch during a baseball game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Globe Life Park in Arlington. The Blue Jays won 5-0. Mandatory Credit: Jim Cowsert-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Texas Rangers put an exclamation point on a weekend series against Toronto. If there wasn’t a rivalry before, then there certainly is now.

The Texas Rangers took two of three games in a weekend tilt against the Toronto Blue Jays. The first game on Friday night was not positive, as Toronto knuckleballer RA Dickey baffled Rangers’ hitters all night en route to a 5-0 win.

The Rangers came back and comported themselves well in a dramatic, come-from-behind win on Saturday night. Centerfielder Drew Stubbs came up huge in the tenth inning with his first home run of the season, powering the home team to a 6-5 walk-off victory.

While the late heroics of Saturday’s ballgame set the stage for yesterday’s rubber match, nothing could have prepared the fans for the histrionics that came to define Sunday afternoon.

Sometimes, a rivalry builds over the course of several seasons. Most of the time, the rivalry will mean more to one team’s fan base than it does the other’s. That may have been the case prior to yesterday’s game. But it’s not often that the tipping point comes into focus as suddenly as it did on an uncharacteristically cool May day in Arlington, Texas.

The Texas Rangers had just taken a 7-6 lead in the bottom of the seventh inning when left fielder Ian Desmond launched a three-run homer just beyond the left field wall. Whether or not Desmond’s subtle bat flip set Toronto off for the top of the eighth is anyone’s guess, but there must have been an undercurrent not readily apparent to those watching on TV or in the stadium.

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Then again, it could be that Rangers’ nemesis Jose Bautista took it upon himself to slide into second base dirty in an attempt to break up a double play relay from second baseman–and known edgy cat–Rougned Odor. The ensuing melee set social media aflame and cemented Odor’s place in Rangers’ lore for decades to come.

Truth be told, the fisticuffs that stole the show yesterday were simply the boiling point and manifestation of the animosity that started in last year’s American League Divisional Series. Of course, that series ended in heartbreaking fashion for Rangers’ fans.

What we witnessed yesterday was the events from last October coming full circle. At the sake of sounding like an obsequious homer, what happened in the eighth inning was the Texas Rangers standing firm and saying, “We’ve had enough of your mess.” A curse word in the place of “mess” would have been appropriate, but this is a family website.

Now, with all that said and done, this doesn’t begin to touch upon the disciplinary action Major League Baseball is bound to take. Rougned Odor did manage to connect with a right hand worthy of a championship boxing match.

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There will be consequences for Odor and the Texas Rangers. But for whatever they may suffer in the short term, we may have witnessed the jelling of club hell bent on winning on their own terms and not being pushed around by a band of paper champions.

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