Willson Contreras turned a routine strikeout into a full-blown mess on June 30, and the Boston Red Sox paid for it with multiple ejections in their game against the Washington Nationals.
The trouble started in the second inning after Contreras took a called third strike on the sixth pitch of his at-bat against Cade Cavalli. As he headed back toward the dugout, Cavalli said something that clearly crossed a line. Contreras immediately came back toward the mound, jawing at him, and the benches emptied.
This wasn’t a quick, harmless clearing of the benches either. Contreras charged at Cavalli, and it took about five people to keep him from getting any closer.
When his helmet came off, he fired it into the pile during the scuffle. The confrontation never escalated into punches, but the intent was obvious.
Replay caught Cavalli telling Contreras, "sit down, boy," after the strikeout. Contreras took serious offense, and rightfully so. Interim manager Chad Tracy tried to step in and make the case for his player, but he ended up getting ejected as well.
It took more than 10 minutes for the umpires to sort through the aftermath. By the time the dust settled, Contreras, Nate Eaton and Nationals pitcher Miles Mikolas had all been tossed.
Eaton and Mikolas had gone after each other off to the side of the main scrum. Cavalli, despite being at the center of it all, stayed in the game.
The ejection was Contreras’ second straight game getting sent off. The night before, he was ejected for tapping his helmet - as if signaling for an ABs challenge - to show his frustration with a check-swing call from first base umpire Nic Lentz.
Contreras has played with his usual edge, and then some, over the last few days. The source of that extra emotion has been the devastating earthquakes that hit Venezuela on June 24.
On June 29, he honored his country with an extra-long home run trot after going deep off Mikolas in the series opener. It’s possible Cavalli saw that moment and took it personally.
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