‘It’s not easy to hide’: Willson Contreras leads Red Sox with Venezuela tragedy weighing on his heart
The beating heart of these Red Sox has become a broken heart.
In a series of emotional events Monday night, Willson Contreras led the Red Sox to a 6-3 win over the Nationals — even though he didn’t play past the second inning.
He hit a monster three-run home run onto Lansdowne Street in the bottom of the first, sobbed in the dugout before taking the field again, and earned a surprise ejection when an umpire deemed him disrespectful following a close strike-three ruling in the second.
Three hours later, getting booted was secondary for Contreras. His mind long since had gone back to where it always is these days: on his native Venezuela and the destruction wrought by a pair of major earthquakes last week.
“It’s not easy to hide. It’s not easy just to show up and play with everything that’s going on in my country,” Contreras said after the Sox’ fifth consecutive victory, extending their longest win streak of the year. “I wasn’t feeling good the whole day. I was kind of down, sad. And I hit a homer. Of course, I tried to help [pump up] my dugout. But the first thing that I said was ‘Venezuela.’ That was the first thing that came out of my mouth.”
As the death toll from the twin earthquakes Wednesday has risen past 1,700, Contreras has spent significant time and energy thinking about, and trying to help with, recovery. From afar, his efforts are necessarily limited. He posts on social media dozens of times per day, raising awareness about ways to help and people who are missing. He also has helped with the team’s collecting of monetary donations through the Red Sox Foundation.
Contreras realizes, he said, “that I have responsibility here” to play every day, particularly at a time when the Red Sox (37-46) are trying to save their season.
“It’s my job to perform,” he said. “It could be a little bit a case of escape from the situation in Venezuela, for a few hours. But the thoughts are there. The thoughts are not going anywhere, are not going away.”
And so he stepped to the plate in the first inning against Nationals righthander Miles Mikolas (seven innings, six runs) with two runners on and one out. Already, the Sox were in a 1-0 hole, via James Wood’s 441-foot leadoff homer in the top of the frame.
Contreras hammered a middle-middle meatball over everything in left-center field. The emotion came immediately. After flipping his bat, he walked up the first-base line, pounding his chest, then his head, then his chest again before finally breaking into a slow jog around the bases.
Upon returning to the dugout, Contreras sat alone and broke down in tears. Wilyer Abreu, his fellow Venezuelan, came over for a hug. So did interim manager Chad Tracy.
“I was there for him because I know the feeling,” said Abreu, who scored a run and drove in a run. “It’s the same feeling that I have. It’s very tough to play right now.”
Contreras’ evening took a weird turn an inning later, when he tried to check his swing but failed, in the view of first-base umpire Nic Lentz. As he walked back to the dugout, Contreras repeatedly tapped his helmet — mockingly using the “challenge” signal from the automatic ball-strike challenge system, except in a spot where it didn’t apply and served only to antagonize.
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Lentz ejected Contreras immediately, triggering confusion from the Red Sox.
Tracy emerged from the dugout in pursuit of an explanation and — in contrast with his usual even-keel demeanor — was outwardly frustrated. Contreras and interim bench coach José David Flores joined him. Contreras calmly explained.
“When it happened, I didn’t know what was going on,” Tracy said. “He felt like he showed him up and threw him out of the game.”
It surprised Contreras, who said he wasn’t making eye contact with Lentz in that moment and was oblivious to the ejection until Marcelo Mayer let him know.
Lentz said a player tapping his helmet in such a situation is cause for immediate ejection.
“Disrespect … got him removed from the game,” Lentz told a pool reporter. “You can have a little bit of discretion. But in a situation like this, where it’s pretty immediate and showing disagreement or trying to gesture in that sort of manner, it would be immediate.”
Contreras said: “I didn’t argue, I didn’t yell, I didn’t do nothing wrong. And he told me, ‘Yeah, but I have to throw you out.’ I was like, you didn’t have to, but you made that choice.”
Andruw Monasterio entered to play first base. With Contreras banished to the clubhouse, the Sox eased their way to another win. Ranger Suarez, also Venezuelan, gave up three runs in six innings, extending the club’s streak of quality starts to 12 in a row — two shy of the franchise record set in 1988.
On Tuesday, Contreras will wake up and do it all again — worry about Venezuela, then try to focus come first pitch.
“I feel like I could be there helping people, and I can’t be there,” Contreras said. “The homer just represents … the only thing that I can do for Venezuela right now, physically, and that’s when my emotions showed.
“It’s for Venezuela. Of course, I’m helping the team to win, and it’s good. But every homer from now on is going to be for the Red Sox and Venezuela.”
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