By Yours Truly
http://throneberryfields.com/2016/10/09/the-jays-sweep-the-rangers-odorous-karma/Whatever it is they say about karma, Rougned Odor is going to hear more about it than he probably cares to hear. At least
until he and his Rangers return to another postseason, preferably unscathed by a throwing error to leave the current
postseason, or a stupid brawl over reactions to last-minute paybacks for things months in the past.
There could have been no more dismaying, heartbreaking sight to Ranger fans than Odor taking a double play feed in the
bottom of the tenth and throwing a short-hopper to first base, where Mitch Moreland couldn’t handle it and then threw
shades too late to stop Josh Donaldson from scoring with the Blue Jays’ ticket to the American League Championship Series
attached.
Apparently, you can hear Blue Jays fans marveling,
Odor finds it easier to land near-sucker punches on Jose Bautista’s face
at the end of a regular-season series between the teams than he does hitting his first baseman with an accurate double-play
finishing throw that might send Game Three of a division series to extra innings instead of to a series finisher in the Jays' favour.
It doesn’t hurt quite as badly as Lucas Duda’s wild throw home on a sure-fire game-ending double play in Game Five of last
year’s World Series proved to hurt for the Mets, who went on to lose the game and the Series in extras after Eric Hosmer
scored on a mad dash home on the misplay.
But the 7-6 Jays win hurts enough for the Rangers’ discomfort. And the Jays probably aren’t in that much mood to be sympathetic.
What really stung is probably that it was Odor who closed an early 5-2 deficit to a single run in the first place, in the top of the fourth,
when—with Adrian Beltre aboard and one out—he hit a strike one pitch over the center field fence. That swing must have removed
the sting of being on the receiving end of the loudest Rogers Centre booing during pre-game introductions.
Until the division series moved to Toronto, Odor and the Rangers hadn’t been seen there since Odor’s punching Bautista in May,
after a hard slide intended as payback for Rangers reliever Matt Bush drilling Bautista—possibly on orders from the bench—late in
the last regular season game between the two.
Drilling Bautista was much-delayed retaliation for Bautista’s rather artistic celebratory bat flip after he hit the three-run homer in
Rogers Centre that helped send the Jays to last year’s American League Championship Series. Karma delayed is karma denied?
Odor’s karma began when Donaldson opened the bottom of the tenth against Bush and, after fouling one off, ripped a double
deep to right. Bush put Edwin Encarnacion—who’d driven in the fifth Toronto run with an RBI single in the third and hit a two-run
homer during the Jays’ Game One massacre of the Rangers—aboard to pitch to Bautista.
This time, Bautista got nothing but struck out. Up stepped Russell Martin, wringing the count full, whacking one toward the hole
at short for which Elvis Andrus—who led off the Rangers’ third with a home run to break a two-all tie—scrambled to pick with
deceptive cleanliness. He threw to Odor to erase Encarnacion.
Then, karma.
Odor was positioned perfectly, both to take Andrus’s throw and to throw on to first. Left foot holding the pad to ensure the out
as Encarnacion slid low and late. Right foot well positioned to push. For a moment it looked as though Odor was trying to avoid
hitting Encarnacion’s helmet on the throw; from another angle, not necessarily so.
No matter. The throw went in low, lower, and short-hopped Moreland behind first base, where first he lunged toward Martin
running past the pad before turning awkwardly as the ball slipped from his hands. By the time he recovered to throw home,
his near-perfect throw was a waste as Donaldson dove across the plate.
“I pulled the ball a little bit to side,” Odor told reporters after the game. “I think I had a chance at first if I made a good
throw.” Bright boy.
“I felt like it was off line and I just tried to keep it in front of me,” said Moreland. “If I don’t keep it in front of, then there
is no chance at getting [Donaldson].” Moreland did all he could even bobbling the ball and he came up a hair short.
This was worse than last year’s Rangers’ exit. Worse than Andrus’s two seventh-inning errors in Game Five last year. Worse
than Moreland throwing wild to kill a double play in its crib in the same inning, or Andrus dropping a throw from third baseman
Adrian Beltre on a bunt. Or Bautista measuring Sam Dyson for a blast that only the Rogers Centre structure kept from going
to the Aleutians.
Even the knowledge that the Rangers were futile against the Toronto bullpen for the final four innings of the game—including
two by Jays closer Roberto Osuna (still listening, Mr. Showalter?)—isn’t going to fashion the stomach knot Sunday’s loss will.
Even knowing the Rangers’ starting rotation had an obscene 13.94 earned run average, tying a record for postseason series
starting pitching futility; or, Colby Lewis unable to control his once-lethal slider on Sunday; or, the Jays hitting .333 in 10 1/3
innings by Rangers starters Lewis, Cole Hamels (Game One), and Yu Darvish (Game Two), the way they ended up losing the
set is enough to drive a group of grown men mad.
Maybe even mad enough to make a pact among themselves that Odor will be cleaned, stuffed, and mounted if he even thinks
about throwing a punch during a game ever again?
A banner hanging from a rail read: “Would Rather Get Punched in May Than Knocked Out in October.” Careful, Jays fans. Karma
has been known to work both ways.
