Feud reignites in Blue Jays-Rangers finale

ARLINGTON — The bad blood that has been building for months between the Blue Jays and Rangers spilled over into an ugly benches-clearing fracas in Texas’ 7-6 victory at Globe Life Park on Sunday afternoon.

There were eight ejections in a game that saw the dugouts emptied twice in the eighth inning. The ill feelings date back to Game 5 of last year’s American League Division Series, when Jose Bautista did his memorable bat flip that rubbed some Rangers players the wrong way.

Toronto and Texas met for the seventh and final time of the regular season Sunday. Everything seemed fine until the eighth inning, when right-hander Matt Bush hit Bautista with a pitch and everything escalated from there.

“Ugly and unfortunate,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. “To me, it was gutless. We’ve played seven games … the other 29 teams out there, if they have an issue with you, they come at you right away. To wait until the end, that just kind of tells me a little something.”

Texas was leading by one run in the eighth when Bush started the inning by hitting Bautista with a 96-mph fastball. The two exchanged words, and there appeared to be a verbal altercation between Toronto’s slugger and the Rangers’ dugout as well, but the game continued uninterrupted.

That changed two batters later, when Justin Smoak hit a grounder to third baseman Adrian Beltre, who tried to get a forceout at second base. Bautista came into the base with a hard slide that was ruled a violation of MLB’s new slide rule and made contact with second baseman Rougned Odor’s leg.

Before the play was over, Odor shoved Bautista with both hands …

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