The punch was not for the bat flip. The pitch that hit Bautista took care of that. But Bautista decided to go after Odor with an illegal dirty slide targeting Odor's knee at second base. Then, rather than getting up and walking toward the dugout after the dirty illegal slide, Bautista decided to walk up to Odor and get in his face. Odor shoved him and then Bautista leans back in to Odor with clenched fists.
I didn’t see the game but just watched the video on YouTube and, yes, the slide had nothing to do with getting safely into second base and was 100% about going at Odor cleats-first. He slid a full body length past the base before coming to rest.
This is correct. Bautista had that ‘arrogant bully’ look with his chest puffed out, that seemed to go away after Odor buckled his knees with the right, a left uppercut would have put him down for the count.
Last year, during the playoffs, Bautista started to hand a ball to a little kid in the stands at KC, then tossed it away. He is the kind of athlete that you love to see get their lights put out. What a jerk.
I played in college, and saw tons of these super gifted people who never had to put out effort, never got called out when they were pr&&ks, while guys like me busted our butts just to get an opportunity, playing the game with pure basics just to get a chance. I was a walk-on infielder, who just got his tuition paid with nothing else and no chance to go further. As a side, I also have some great friends who at least briefly made it to the majors, one who I know is still around baseball as a scout.