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Bautista flips 400-foot bird at booing Rangers fans

Jose Bautista's tumultuous relationship with the Texas Rangers franchise resulted in choruses of boos from fans in Game 1 of the ALDS, but he found his own way to silence the crowd.

Slugger's 6th career post-season home run ties Joe Carter's record

Alexis Allison · CBC Sports ·

Jose Bautista writes new chapter in Blue Jays record book

8 years ago
Duration 0:33
Bautista tied Joe Carter for the most postseason homers in Blue Jays history with six

The boos were expected.

The three-run home run to seal a Game 1 victory for the Toronto Blue Jays might not have been.

But that's just what Jose Bautista accomplished Wednesday night in Texas in a series that has a rich history of animosity between the two teams battling in the ALDS.

Before the game even started, fans poured into the Rangers' stadiums decked out in Bautista-themed gear.

Batting fourth in the rotation as designated hitter, Bautista was greeted in his first at-bat with almost 50,000 fans mixing in boos and chants of "Rougie", a nod at Rangers' second-baseman Rougned Odor and the now infamous punch he laid on Bautista earlier this season.

Bautista flew out to left field, but was back up to the plate in the third inning. With two outs and runners on first and third, Jays fans were hoping for something big to silence the crowd.

Though it wasn't a bat-flip bomb, Bautista quietly grounded a single to bring Josh Donaldson around to score in the middle of a five-run inning for the Jays. Two more runs in the fourth, including a home run, and suddenly the Rangers fans were booing more than Bautista.

But Bautista wasn't done there, as he put the nail in the coffin in the ninth inning, hitting a three-run shot and tying Joe Carter's franchise post-season record for career home runs with six. This time, it didn't take a bat-flip for Bautista to make his point.

After the game, Bautista said he was was happy to keep the focus on baseball.

"I wanted to avoid all the questions about the whole ordeal because we're baseball players, not UFC fighters, and we came here to play ballgames," Bautista said. "That's why I wanted everybody to kind of focus on that in our clubhouse. And we did and we played a pretty good game today and hopefully we continue to do that."

He also downplayed laying the bat down softly afterward, in contrast to last year's drama.

"I have a couple of home runs in my career and I think I've only flipped it once," Bautista said. "Just kind of been blown out of proportion because of the moment last year.

"So I don't think there was anything too special about laying it down the way I did, because that's the way that 99.9-plus per cent of the time I do it," he said.

The Jays face the Rangers in Game 2 of the ALDS on Friday afternoon in Texas at 1:08 P.M. ET.

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