BOSTON – For the Fenway Park faithful, a high-and-tight fastball was an introduction to the longstanding beef between Willson Contreras and the Brewers.
For the Brewers, it was a chance to get the last word – at least for a night.
“I mean, we’ve seen that skit for the last 10 years,” said Milwaukee veteran Christian Yelich after an emotional 8-6 win over the Red Sox on Monday. “It’s nothing new.”
“We’ve been through this – it’s, what, nine years for me? – it seems like every year,” said Brewers starter Brandon Woodruff. “He’s trying to play a game and he’s trying to get his side fired up. Once I knew what was going on, I wasn’t going to let it affect me on the mound. I knew I had a job to do.”
If the Brewers weren’t backing down, neither was Contreras.
He’s tired of getting buzzed by Brewers pitchers.
“They always say, ‘I’m not trying to hit you.’ That gets old,” Contreras said. “So next time they hit me again, I’m going to take one of them out. That’s the message.”
Woodruff pitched into the sixth inning despite Contreras’ best efforts to derail him, and Yelich led Milwaukee’s gritty offensive attack by reaching safely four times, racing around the bases to score a critical eighth-inning insurance run as the Brewers took the opener of a series that still has plenty of potential for drama with two games to go.
Boston left fielder Roman Anthony’s throwing error was the opening Yelich needed to get all the way home from first base to score a second run on Garrett Mitchell’s go-ahead single. Yelich dove headfirst, jumped to his feet and celebrated like it was October, instead of a chilly night in early April.
That’s the kind of release that Contreras, the elder brother of Milwaukee catcher William Contreras, tends to bring out in the Brewers. The latest dose of drama on Monday night included a disputed hit-by-pitch, some choice words for Woodruff, a slide so high and hard that Willson’s cleat tore a hole in the pants of Brewers shortstop David Hamilton and a bloop double that put Milwaukee in a hole. When he homered off Angel Zerpa in the ninth, Contreras had reached safely five times, tying a career high.
But the Brewers held on. They improved to an MLB-best-tying 8-2 with the win while dropping the Red Sox to an MLB-worst 2-8.
"There was just a lot going on tonight," Woodruff said.
It was an unremarkable baseball game until the third, when the first two Red Sox reached safely against Woodruff before he threw a 92.9 mph sinker high and tight against Contreras, right over his knuckles. The call on the field was a hit-by-pitch and Contreras most certainly reacted as if he’d been hit, screaming toward Woodruff on the way to first base while younger brother William got between them in an attempt to cool the situation.
"I tried, but it's impossible,” William said. "That's how he plays."
There was a lot of history wrapped up in those words. Willson Contreras has been hit by 131 pitches in his career and the Brewers account for 24 of them – 10 more than any other team. And no pitcher has plunked Contreras more than Woodruff; six times in 28 career matchups to that point of the night. It’s partly a matter of familiarity, since Contreras has played more games against the Brewers (121) than any other team by virtue of spending his first 10 MLB seasons in the National League Central with the Cubs and Cardinals before he was traded to the Red Sox in December. And Woodruff is the Brewers’ longest-tenured player.
But at times, it’s been personal. During one particularly tense stretch of Cubs-Brewers games in 2021 before the universal designated hitter spared pitchers from taking at-bats, Chicago reliever Ryan Tepera fired a fastball behind Woodruff’s legs in what looked like retaliation for Contreras being hit by a Woodruff pitch earlier in the game.
A couple of innings later, Contreras hit a long go-ahead home run and shushed the Milwaukee crowd while circling the bases.
“I think they picked the wrong guy to throw at,” he said that night. “That was a message sent."
Which brings the story back to Monday night.
But first: Was Contreras even hit by that pitch?
The Brewers challenged, and the only thing the slow-motion replay showed definitively was that it was very, very close. The replay official in New York returned with a ruling of “call stands,” indicating only that there was inconclusive video evidence to overturn the call on the field.
"They said it hit him, so it's a hit-by-pitch,” William Contreras said.
From his crouch at home plate, did he hear anything?
"No," William said.
Willson felt differently.
“I took exception with it, the 24th time. It’s not coincidence,” he said. “They’re going there with a purpose. That’s fine, that’s pitching. But next time you hit me, the message is clear. I’m going to take one of them out.”
Then things grew even more heated when Wilyer Abreu followed by bouncing a run-scoring fielder’s choice up the middle. Second baseman Brice Turang fielded it and fed to Hamilton while Contreras bore down. As he slid, his left cleat was high enough in the air to catch Hamilton’s left pants leg just below the knee, tearing a hole.
“I’ll watch it on tape tonight. The umpire did say it was clean,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “It did cut Hamilton. It could have hurt him bad. But he didn’t slide past the base. It’s good old-fashioned baseball. I didn’t think there was anything wrong with it.”
Asked about his intent, Willson Contreras said, “I wouldn’t say purposeful because he stayed on the bag and that was a perfect legal slide.”
The sides went back and forth for the rest of the night, from a 3-0 Red Sox lead in the bottom of the third inning to a 4-3 Brewers lead in the top of the fourth with a rally that included three infield hits, three walks, a run-scoring error charged to former Brewers third baseman Caleb Durbin – and nothing hit out of the infield.
It was a short-lived lead thanks to – you guessed it – Contreras, who blooped a two-out, run-scoring double down the right-field line off Woodruff in the bottom of the fourth inning to tie the game at 5-5. Then he singled in the seventh inning and homered in the ninth.
“Willson, he plays with a different type of chip on his shoulder than most people play with, I’ll put it that way,” Durbin said. “Best way to describe it is you love him when he’s on your team and you hate going up against him, so I’m glad he’s on my side this year.”
“I talked to Willson, ‘Whatever is going on, I need you in the game,’” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “We’ll leave it at that.”
Despite the best efforts of their longtime nemesis, the Brewers never let Boston push back ahead.
Ten games into the season, the Brewers already have five comeback victories.
“That was a great win. It was a ‘toughness’ win from the guys,” Yelich said. “We got down early, it was cold out there, we’ve got a short bullpen and we found a way to win. We’re willing to grind with anybody.”