A new year, same results. The memes make fun of the Texas Rangers and especially Rougned Odor after they got swept by the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALDS. Who remembers he knocked out Jose Bautista with a punch this season?
In fact, things have changed. The Rangers dragged the series to game 5 last year. However, this season, they got better within the series, but were always missing something. They got blown out in game 1, beaten in game 2, and couldn’t complete a simple out in game 3, allowing the Blue Jays to win 7-6 with a walk off run.
The big loser has got to be Odor. He punched Bautista in a famous incident early in the season, mostly motivated by Bautista celebrating a home run in the 2015 postseason with a bat flip. Go figure the way Baseball players use logic. He actually hit a two-run homer in game 3 to put the Rangers within one run, but he also made the decisive error that led the Blue Jays to win the game.
It’s not that Bautista has been doing all that great in this series. He’s batting just .167. But ย he was made into a laughing stock for getting punched by Odor. Now his postseason carries on for at least another week, while Odor and the Rangers go home to begin their winter vacation.