Bautista, Gibbons voice displeasure with Rangers

ARLINGTON — The Blue Jays thought the bitterness from their rivalry with the Rangers was a thing of the past. Turns out they were wrong.

The bad blood between these two teams reached a new level Sunday afternoon during a pair of benches-clearing altercations. Two batters were hit, eight people were ejected and punches were thrown and landed in an ugly 7-6 Blue Jays loss at Globe Life Park.

All of it was apparently because of Jose Bautista’s bat flip in Game 5 of the American League Division Series last fall. The Blue Jays might have expected some sort of retribution earlier in the season series, but after six games passed without incident, they felt like everybody had moved on.

“It shows at least the apparent lack of leadership they have over there, when it comes to playing baseball the right way,” Bautista said after the game. “Baseball plays are supposed to be taken care of by baseball plays.

“I thought it was pretty cowardly of them to wait until my last at-bat to do that, in the whole series. They could have come out and done it if they just wanted to kind of send a message. It shows a little bit more of their colors.”

Sunday’s incident began in the eighth inning, when Rangers right-hander Matt Bush hit Bautista with a 96-mph fastball. Both dugouts were warned, but the game continued uninterrupted until two batters later, when Justin Smoak hit a grounder to third base.

Adrian Beltre threw to second for the forceout, and that’s when Bautista came in with a hard slide that was ruled in violation of MLB’s new rule. As a result, both Bautista and Smoak were ruled out in …

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