ANAHEIM -- Willson Contreras didn't wait for a question.
Standing inside the Red Sox dugout before Saturday's game against the Angels, the first baseman took it entirely upon himself to address the media unprompted. As he spoke, Contreras began to cry.
“One thing that I want to add on the record for you guys," Contreras said through interpreter Daveson Pérez, pausing to collect himself, “is just an apology for all of the events from last week. All of the things that occurred with the Nationals are things that were very hard and a very emotional time for me."
The apology comes during an already difficult stretch for the Venezuelan first baseman, whose home country is currently dealing with the aftermath of devastating earthquakes. Just one day before Tuesday's altercation with Nationals pitcher Cade Cavalli, Contreras spoke about the difficulty of playing while his native country was ravaged by the disaster -- noting that the stress of the situation left him struggling to manage his emotions on the field.
Contreras remains active alongside teammate Nate Eaton while appealing their respective suspensions -- a seven-game ban for Contreras and three games for Eaton -- stemming from the fourth-inning altercation on Tuesday.
While Contreras continues to follow the Players Association's advice by not discussing the specifics of his ongoing appeal, the emotional weight of the situation was too much to push aside. For him, the administrative process couldn't resolve the personal side of the incident.
"They won't understand why I'm apologizing now," Contreras said. "But I think it's something that is important for me to do because I feel that, again, it was an emotional time and those situations could have been avoided and controlled and handled better."
Rather than offering excuses or allowing the incident to fade into the background of an ongoing appeal process, Contreras chose complete accountability for his actions. Moments later, he took that mindset onto the field, launching a first-inning three-run home run a Statcast-projected 421 feet off an 80.6 mph changeup to give Boston an early lead — his 19th blast of a breakout season.
"It's been a really tough and emotional week for me," Contreras said, wiping away tears. "And I just ... I hope that they understand how emotional it has been and how I'll prove myself with my actions on the field from here moving forward and show the kind of person that I truly am."