Sam Dyson: Jose Bautista needs to respect the game

Yes, it’s the jersey Bautista was wearing when he hit the game-winning home run. Or that Texas ace Cole Hamels had been on par with Stroman through six innings.

The Blue Jays became the third team to win a best-of-five series after losing the first two games at home. And they did so by creating pure, unadulterated havoc.

“Then for the first game I felt we looked like the old team, we were playing like we done all year”. Two wins in elimination games in Texas.

The benches cleared three different times and the inning lasted almost an hour.

Hamels then played Houdini, recording three straight outs after putting on the first two men in the bottom of the second. They may erect a statue of that bat flip.

What started all this nuttiness?

It has been a long time coming.

Rangers right fielder Shin-Soo Choo homered and Blue Jays designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion homered.

Here’s another video of the home run and a GIF of a second angle of perhaps the greatest bat flip/launch of our generation. Home plate umpire Dale Scott initially called time out but later awarded the Rangers the run following a lengthy conference with the crew.

Shades of Joe Carter: The Blue Jays slugger came through with a huge three-run shot in the seventh to break a 3-3 tie, giving Toronto its first lead of the game. The umpires obliged manager John Gibbons by looking at the play, but because Odor did nothing to cause the deflection, the ball was live and the Rangers had one of the most unlikely leads in the history of the game.

“I’ve been involved in that play before”. The win gained them entry into the AL Championship Series against the Toronto Blue Jays, which prompted Brett to contemplate the topic du jour: Jose Bautista chucking his bat like an Olympic javelin thrower.

It’s going to be hard for any Major League Baseball playoff game this year to top Game 5 of Wednesday’s ALDS and Bautista’s home run will be a big reason why.

MLB’s rules specifically state that “if the batter is standing in the batter’s box and he or his bat is struck by the catcher’s throw back to the pitcher (or throw in attempting to retire a runner) and, in the umpire’s judgement, there is no intent on the part of the batter to interfere with the throw, the ball is alive and in play”.

“I threw the ball like I always do – I’ve done it probably over a million times – it’s never happened”, he said. I don’t know the rule. He was in the box. Bautista just had the biggest hit of his life, in front of 49,742 screaming partisans, a moment that most people can only imagine. “He knew it. We knew it. The whole stadium knew it. The place went nuts”. First baseman Mitch Moreland fielded a chopper and chunked a throw in the dirt to second base, which Andrus failed to scoop. Goins is on third, Donaldson on first. He circled the bases. I didn’t really see it. I threw the ball like I always do. The benches cleared, and Baustista was especially animated, though things didn’t escalate into a full-on fight.

The Blue Jays could drink it all in. The Blue Jays won. “Victor obviously advances. I don’t mean any disrespect whenever I do anything like that, and I certainly didn’t plan it”, Bautista said in an interview with FS1’s Ken Rosenthal. All three are homegrown Blue Jays’ talents, drafted or signed and developed by the franchise. The 20-year-old Mexican had to get five outs for the save after one of the most dramatic comebacks in playoff lore, and he did so marvelously. He is a real weapon going forward this postseason.

“Jose needs to calm that down, just kind of respect the game a little more”, Dyson told reporters after the game. That home run saved his team’s season.

No left-handers in pen doesn’t burn Jays: The Blue Jays again were without left-hander Aaron Loup, who was away from the team to deal with a family matter for the second game in a row.