Bat-flip by Rangers’ Odor in WBC miffs Astros’ Bregman

. Texas Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor drove in the go-ahead run Monday night for Venezuela in a win-or-go-home World Baseball Classic tiebreaker against Italy.

The box score shows only an RBI single, though the hit bounced off the top of the wall in left-center field. Odor flipped his bat and jogged to first thinking he had hit a home run.

He eventually scored an insurance run that was badly needed in a 4-3 victory.

But the bat flip didn’t sit well with Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman, who has been riding the bench for Team USA. Bregman has 49 career games under on his resume. Odor has 384.

But that didn’t keep Bregman from tweeting, “Act like you’ve done it before.” Don’t bother looking for the tweet, though. Bregman quickly deleted it, but not before the Houston Chronicle captured a screen grab.

Odor, in transit from Mexico to San Diego, could not be reached for comment. Manager Jeff Banister, though, had a few thoughts.

“Was he in the other dugout?” Banister said. “The only people who should be concerned about that are the people involved in the game.”

C.J. Nitkowski, a former big-league pitcher and the new TV analyst for Rangers broadcasts, took to twitter to put Bregman in his place.

“Kid with 70 days in the big leagues subtweets Odor’s bat flip & and tells him to ‘act like you’ve done it before,” Nitkowski wrote. “In a second cowardly act the tweet gets deleted. Twitter courage fades fast.”

Odor has drawn the ire of the Astros and their fans since 2015, when he flipped his bat after a late-game triple. The benches cleared during his next at-bat after catcher Hank Conger yelled at Odor to get in the batter’s box.

The Rangers went 15-4 against the Astros last season en route to the American League West title and 13-6 against them in 2015 as they overtook Houston for the West crown.

This story was originally published March 14, 2017 at 2:45 PM with the headline "Bat-flip by Rangers’ Odor in WBC miffs Astros’ Bregman."