Meet Nomar Mazara, baseball’s next big young star

1:23 AM ET

This happened in the eighth inning of the Texas Rangers’ 2-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays, just another game out of 162 but a game with some built-in extra drama, as the Rangers faced Jose Bautista for the first time since his blast, glare and bat flip gave the Jays the clinching win in Game 5 of the division series and created a culture war:

1. Nomar Mazara, the 21-year-old right fielder for the Rangers and American League Rookie of the Month for April, broke a 1-1 tie with a home run off Gavin Floyd by blasting a 1-1 cutter to center field.

2. The Blue Jays put runners on first and second with nobody out against Sam Dyson, which created the rematch everyone hoped to witness: Dyson versus Bautista, beard versus beard, old-school versus new-school. The script couldn’t have called for a juicier scenario. It was a potentially game-deciding situation, with no room for the Rangers to fool around with hitting Bautista — just our guy against your guy. The 25,000-plus in attendance all rose to their feet, with the anticipation acute. Except Dyson won this battle when he got Bautista to line out to right field on a 2-1, 98 mph fastball. Maybe that extra mph was the difference: Last October’s home run came on a mere 97 mph heater.

3. After Edwin Encarnacion walked to load the bases, Troy Tulowitzki lifted a lazy fly ball down the right-field line — not too shallow, not too deep, the right distance for a close play at the plate if the right fielder makes a good throw. Well, Mazara unleashed a great throw, and Michael Saunders was thrown out.

Just like that, Mazara …

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