Rougned Odor Doesn’t Regret Walloping Jose Bautista, Claims Self-Defense

The Rangers and Blue Jays had a batshit insane brawl yesterday that featured a series of fights and plenty of intense yelling, but all that noise doesn’t amount to much, since Rougned Odor slugging Jose Bautista was so clean and violent that it’s taken on a life of its own outside the specific context of the mutual disdain between the two teams, and rightly so, because it was an incredible blow.

Bautista insisted in the aftermath of the scuffle that Odor was only able to get him because he surprised him and sucker punched him. Reporters caught up with Odor this afternoon before Texas’ game with the A’s, and he offered a slightly different version of events:

Odor said that he was trying to protect himself, that he didn’t regret anything that happened even though he knows he’ll be suspended, and that it was just part of the game. Odor certainly struck hardest and he stayed aggressive after rocking Bautista, but it’s not like Bautista wasn’t squared up and putting hands in Odor’s face. Odor will probably get the longest suspension of anyone involved because of the optics of smashing a dude’s head that hard, but Bautista got him with the slide and he’ll get some time off too probably.

Joe Torre said this evening that he will announce suspensions from the brawl tomorrow, so we’ll find out soon enough.