ARLINGTON, Texas — There was Jose Bautista’s emphatic bat flip after his tiebreaking homer in the ALDS-clinching game last October, and then Rougned Odor’s punch in May that ignited a bench-clearing brawl the last time the Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays played.

Now comes the rematch in another AL Division Series between teams clearly with some bad blood between them.

“I don’t think it’s fabricated,” Blue Jays outfielder Kevin Pillar said Wednesday.

“We knew it was going to happen,” Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus said of facing Toronto again. “That’s baseball.”

The year’s best-of-five ALDS starts today in Texas, where on May 15 second baseman Odor punched Bautista. The scuffle began after Bautista, on base after getting hit in the ribs by a pitch, made a late and hard slide trying to break up a double play at the end of a contentious series.

“It’s unfortunate that it got out of hand last time, but it did, so it’s in the past and hopefully stays there,” Bautista said. “I’m not looking for revenge, I’m looking to win ball games. That’s entirely what my focus is on.”

With all that recent history, close attention will be paid to every inside fastball, hard slide or any emotional outburst.

But these are also two teams with much more on the line than retribution after falling short of their World Series goal last year.