Rosenthal: Did Astros intentionally hit Rangers in pivotal ALCS moment? It’s

ARLINGTON, Texas — People will see what they want to see. I said on the FS1 broadcast that Bryan Abreu obviously was not throwing at Adolis García. Perhaps that was too strong.

The umpires ruled Abreu’s pitch was intentional. Several Rangers players believe the pitch was intentional. But it’s telling that manager Bruce Bochy would not go that far, saying, “Who knows?”

Bochy was well aware that a hit batsman was the last thing the game situation warranted. He was more upset by a delay that lasted almost 12 minutes as the umpires sorted out the fracas in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series, leading to the ejections of Abreu, García and Astros manager Dusty Baker.

The delay, Bochy said, affected Rangers closer José Leclerc, who had just gotten the final out of the eighth inning, and ultimately would give up Jose Altuve’s go-ahead three-run shot in the ninth, the decisive blow in the Astros’ wild 5-4 victory.

Before litigating the uproar, let’s imagine an alternate universe where García simply would have jogged to first base after Abreu drilled him in the front shoulder with a 99-mph fastball.

That universe did not exist, for even Astros catcher Martín Maldonado said, “I think every hitter in baseball would have taken it the same way.” García hit a go-ahead, three-run shot in the sixth. Abreu hit him with the very first pitch of his next at-bat. In the heat of the moment, García was going to react, particularly given the past incidents between these teams.

“He could have hurt me,” García said.

But here’s the thing: If García had simply gone to first, the benches and bullpens would not have cleared. The Rangers would have had runners on first and second with none out, a chance to add on to their 4-2 lead. They ultimately did not score in that situation, mind you. But the delay happened because the fracas happened. And Maldonado, the initial target of García’s anger, said the incident fired up his team.

“Yes,” said. “Of course it did.”

Leclerc gave up pinch-hitter Yainer Diaz’s first hit in 11 postseason at-bats leading off the ninth. He then walked pinch-hitter Jon Singleton, who was making his first plate appearance in 19 days. And then, Altuve did what Altuve does, hitting his — gasp — 26th postseason home run.

Afterward, the Rangers were stewing, over their failure to close out a game they controlled, over the Astros taking a three-games-to-two lead in the series, and yes, over Abreu hitting García.

What, though, would have been Abreu’s motivation to throw at García intentionally? Justin Verlander, who allowed Garcia’s homer, said the Astros were not upset the slugger walked up the first-base line, then spiked his bat, saying, “I don’t think anybody is mad about him pimping a homer, it was the biggest homer in his career, quite honestly.” Rangers first baseman Nathaniel Lowe suggested Abreu might have been retaliating for Aroldis Chapman nearly hitting