BOSTON -- The fiery Willson Contreras has a way of finding himself in the center of tense moments on the baseball field.
Even though this one was didn’t seem to be any fault of his own, Contreras was in the middle of a beef with his close friend and former teammate Victor Caratini on Saturday at Fenway Park, forcing the benches and bullpens to empty an eventual 4-2 defeat to the Twins that dropped the Red Sox to 8-16 at Fenway Park this season.
Here is what happened: On an RBI double to the gap in right-center by Ceddanne Rafaela in the bottom of the fourth inning, Contreras tried to add a second run on the play and score from first.
But the throw beat him to the plate, and he stumbled into Caratini with his hands, who took exception to the contact, which wasn’t all that forceful.
“No, it wasn't anything malicious or anything at all, it was not bad intention,” said Contreras. “I played with Caratini with [the Cubs for a] long time, so there weren't any bad intentions behind that. When I was getting to home plate, when I thought it was going to be out, I tried to stop myself, but at the end of the day, if I dive, I might have hit him harder.”
Caratini, citing his friendship with Contreras, declined comment.
Right after the play unfolded, Caratini and Contreras wrapped their arms around each other while saying some words back and forth, but it didn’t seem particularly heated. A former catcher himself, Contreras appeared to be telling Caratini he had nowhere to go.
The play appeared legal both in terms of the way Caratini blocked the plate and how Contreras made some contact.
“He told me that I should have slid or something like that,” Contreras said. “From my perspective, if I slid or tried to do something different, I might hit him harder than what actually happened.
"But at the end of the day, that's a tough play. I need to keep trying to touch home plate, because that's what I need to do, and yeah, the play happens.”
It was an eventful play to be sure, and a costly out for the Red Sox, who had one of their only rallies of the day short-circuited.
Interim third-base coach Chad Epperson initially waved both runners home, putting up the stop sign as Contreras was rounding third.
“So I just watched the video, and as he was sending me, then I put my head down to touch the base, and then he tried to stop me, so that was late,” Contreras said. “Either you send me right away or stop me right away.”
Contreras and Caratini did a nice job diffusing the situation, and both sides retreated back to their dugouts and bullpens in fairly short order with no punches being thrown.
Contreras expressed surprise that the benches even emptied.
“That is an organization I respect a lot, and I’ve never had any kind of problem with them,” Contreras said. “Even more with Caratini behind the plate, he’s a guy that is a close friend of mine. For him to get that mad at that, it was kind of surprising. For the benches to empty, that was surprising as well.”
Crew chief Will Little issued a warning to both teams.
Contreras had reached base on an infield single moments earlier in that fourth inning where he slid head-first through the base, knocking over Twins first baseman Kody Clemens in the process.
While nobody on the field showed displeasure when that play happened, the Twins broadcast spent a few minutes criticizing Contreras for his aggressiveness.
When that was relayed to Contreras, he took great offense.
“That was a regular play. Don’t try to speak for something where there’s nothing there,” said Contreras. “I’m an aggressive player, so I slid into first base. So you’re trying to say that I slid on Clemens’ foot? So what should I do? Play with toys?”
All around, it was just another in a long line of frustrating defeats for the Red Sox at Fenway Park, who were coming off a 4-2 road trip before losing the first two games of this homestand.
Boston is now 1-6-1 in series played at Fenway this season, and haven’t won a home series since taking a rubber match against the Brewers on April 8.
“You can readily acknowledge: At some point this year, if we're gonna do something, we're gonna have to get going at home,” said Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy. “It's just that simple. These are not blowouts. We're playing good baseball games. But we're gonna have to win some games at home, no question.”