Rooting for a Rangers-Blue Jays playoff series

Rivalries are great, especially new ones, the kind that pop up over some intense play on the field.

If you’re of an age, you might remember Royals-Yankees in the late 1970s, when no matter what they tried, the Royals just couldn’t get past New York. Or the Braves and the Padres in the ’80s. And the Cubs and Mets in the late ’80s — or really any time from 1969 forward.

You can bet that’s what we’ve got with the Blue Jays and the Rangers for the foreseeable future after Sunday’s extracurricular activities at Globe Life Park in Arlington.

Many lines — invisible ones and obvious ones — were crossed by participants from both sides. The passion on the field between the Jays and Rangers is what makes baseball its most compelling, but there’s never a place for a player to pop an opponent in the face, as Rougned Odor did to Jose Bautista.

Odor deserves the long suspension he is certain to receive.

The fight between the teams was the real thing, and that’s rare in baseball these days. These are two teams that really, really don’t like each other.

So here’s hoping that we’ll see them on the same field again this year.

The next meeting between the Rangers and Jays would have to be in October, as their regular-season series is over. But picture the buildup and drama if they meet again in the postseason, maybe even playing for a spot in the World Series.

While teams like the Orioles, Red Sox, Mariners, White Sox, Royals and others will have a say in that, there’s a legitimate chance of a rematch in October. That would be so much fun.

The Rangers moved past the Mariners into the American League West lead with Sunday’s victory, and the Blue Jays are about as dangerous as a 19-20 team can be. It’s hard to imagine that a team featuring Bautista, Josh Donaldson, Edwin Encarnacion, Troy Tulowitzki and Russell Martin isn’t going to make a run at some point.

The Rangers wouldn’t have …

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