It's often said there is no better revenge than success.
Jose Bautista may have proved that on Thursday afternoon when his three-run home run capped off an explosion of offence for the Toronto Blue Jays as they beat Texas 10-1 in the opening game of their American League Division Series in Arlington. For Bautista, who may have had extra motivation to play well after taking the "punch heard round the world" from Rangers second baseman Roughned Odor earlier this season, it was much better retribution than returning Odor's punch could ever be.
"I feel happy that we won the ballgame," Bautista told MLB.com. "Coming off having to claw our way back into the playoffs and the Wild Card Game and putting up a lot of runs early feels good, especially when you're backing a start like Marco had today."
Unlike in last year's ALDS, there was no bat flip from Bautista this time.
Bautista's bat drop. pic.twitter.com/pU3ycNCvWH
— Ian Hunter (@BlueJayHunter) October 6, 2016
After struggling for much of September, the Blue Jays offence came alive in in the third inning. After Ezekiel Carrera scored on a Josh Donaldson double, Bautista drilled a Cole Hamels curveball into centrefield for an RBI single to make it 2-0. Hamels loaded the bases, bringing Troy Tulowitzki to the plate with two out. The Blue Jays shortstop send a towering drive to right-centrefield, with appeared that it may be caught for the third out. But Rangers centrefielder Ian Desmond pulled up just short of the wall, allowing the hit to fall for a bases clearing triple.
A leadoff home run in the fourth inning by Melvin Upton made it 6-0 Jays. Donaldson, who ended the day with four hits, had an RBI single in the fourth to make it 7-0. Bautista's home run came in the top of the ninth.
And while the offence was able to put 10 runs on the board, the performance of Blue Jays starter Marco Estrada cannot be overlooked. Estrada was dominant, giving up just four hits in 8 1/3 innings. He struck six and didn't issue a single walk.
"Little hints of [Greg] Maddux in Marco with the ability to locate," catcher Russell Martin told MLB.com. "Not the same arsenal of pitches -- Maddux had a little bit more movement on his fastball, but he was by no means a power pitcher, he was finesse. Marco has that ability to add and subtract on his pitches and really hit spots. He made it look easy out there, and it's really not."
The Blue Jays and Rangers will play Game 2 of the series on Friday afternoon at 1pm Eastern. J.A. Happ will start for Toronto, while the Rangers send Yu Darvish to the mound.
