ANAHEIM, Calif. - The question was supposed to be about the cut Angels shortstop Andrelton Simmons suffered on his leg after Rougned Odor slid into him Friday night and whether the injury indicated intent.

Rangers manager Jeff Banister didn't even wait for the whole presentation.

"Our shortstop is getting better, too," he said. "What's it been, seven weeks now?"

Banister was referencing the fractured right elbow Elvis Andrus suffered during the season's second week after being hit by a pitch from Angels reliever Keynan Middleton. His point: The Rangers didn't conflate an injury with intent then and the Angels shouldn't now. Anjd

The Rangers maintained Odor's slide into second on what ended up being a game-ending double play Friday was legal. Simmons took exception and the benches cleared briefly after the game had officially ended. Simmons ended up with what appeared to be a spiking on his left shin but was in the lineup Saturday.

Odor went into the bag hard on Ronald Guzman's grounder to the right side. He came in wide of the bag but veered back to it and was able to both reach the bag and maintain contact with it - the two main elements that constitute a legal slide.

Not surprisingly, the Angels disagreed.

"I think Odor goes in there hard," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said after the game. "He plays hard like our guys play hard. I think the slide looked like it took a little bit of a veer."

Said Odor on Saturday: "If I slide dirty, I know it," Odor said. "I did not go in with my feet up. My foot was pointed down. I went back and looked at it. It was not dirty."

Perhaps Simmons also took exception because Odor has a reputation as a hard-slider and has occasionally been presumed a "dirty" player since his fight with Toronto's Jose Bautista over a slide into second. That slide by Bautista ended up with a confrontation between the players and a strong right cross by Odor that caused a benches-clearing brawl.

"How does he stop that, I don't know," Banister said of presumptions about Odor. "I don't know that he ever can. But if people watch, they will see a guy who plays with hard desire."