Preceding the Blue Jays' eventual paddling of the Rangers in Game 1 of the ALDS on Thursday (TOR 10, TEX 1) was much anticipation regarding the rivalry between Toronto cloutsman Jose Bautista and Texas.

You'll recall, of course, that Jose Bautista during last year's ALDS against the Rangers unfurled a true pantheon-dweller of a bat-flip ...

Move ahead to May 15 of this year, and a hard Bautista slide in tandem with pre-existing hostilities led to this Rougned Odor massive soup-bone to the chops ...

So, yes, given all that intrigue heralded Game 1 in Arlington. Bautista certainly did his part, as he went 2 for 4 with a walk and four RBI and in the ninth he hit a pitched baseball 425 feet ...

A blast, that one. Not pictured above in that particular bit of action-sports footage was what Bautista did with him implement of run-making -- i.e., his bat. You'll note, of course, the Bat-Flip That Launched A Thousand Ships above, but Bautista's treatment of his bat this time around may be characterized as "aggressively non-aggressive." Please regard ...

joeybatsbat.jpg

As you can with the aid of the call-to-action red arrows, Bautista upon smiting the ball merely laid his bat down without whiff of a rumor of a flip. Deliberately modest, is what it looked like in real time. So no offense could possibly be taken by the other side.

Speaking of throwing haymakers on a baseball field, here's what Joey Bats had to say after the Game 1 throttling was in the books ...

He's a hitter, not a fighter. And because this is the internet, at least one internet-goer was honor-bound to respond thus:

In any event, Jose Bautista had a good game, and the Blue Jays won that game by very many runs.