Major League Baseball moved quickly on the bench-clearing brawl between the Nationals and Red Sox, handing out suspensions to all four players involved in the incident.
Washington starter Cade Cavalli was hit with the heaviest penalty: seven games for initiating and taking part in the fracas. Rotation mate Miles Mikolas received a five-game suspension for his role in the scrum. On Boston’s side, first baseman Willson Contreras was suspended seven games for what MLB said he did during and after the confrontation, while backup infielder Nate Eaton drew a three-game ban.
Each player was also fined an undisclosed amount, and all four are expected to appeal. Evan Drellich of The Athletic reported at 7:08 p.m. that the appeals will indeed be filed. Because both clubs are off tonight, the suspensions would otherwise start tomorrow.
Contreras’ punishment was increased because he violated a league rule about using social media during a game, according to Chris Cotillo of MassLive. After being ejected, he went on Instagram and replied, “come meet me at Fenway” to a fan who had insulted him while the game was still being played.
The fight itself grew out of the fourth inning on Tuesday, when Cavalli struck Contreras out looking and yelled “sit down, boy” as Contreras headed back to the dugout. Contreras then moved toward the mound, and both benches emptied.
During the chaos, Contreras threw his helmet. The tension had apparently started even earlier, in the first inning, when Cavalli took issue with Contreras brushing past him as they returned to their dugouts at the end of the frame.
Eaton and Mikolas were not in the game, but both were ejected for fighting once the benches cleared.
Cavalli was never tossed and stayed in to throw seven scoreless innings with 13 strikeouts, the best outing of his career. Red Sox interim skipper Chad Tracy criticized the umpires for not ejecting him, and MLB’s discipline made clear the league office believed punishment was warranted.
Contreras, who is Venezuelan, and Tracy both declined to say whether they thought Cavalli’s use of the word “boy” carried a racial meaning, according to ESPN. Cavalli addressed the matter in a statement yesterday, saying the comment was not meant that way and expressing regret over his wording.
“I’m extremely torn up about the way that things were perceived,” Cavalli said. “Obviously, there was no ill intention behind that.
My teammates know me, my family knows me, this organization knows me. I couldn’t sleep because of it.
It hurt my heart, knowing that if there’s a 13-year-old Black kid in D.C. that sees that - that looked up to me and thinks that he perceived it in a way that wasn’t intended the way that it came out, and then he’s not looking up to me anymore - that hurts my heart.”
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