Boo Willson Contreras once, and he can let it slide. Do it again while he is nursing a sore hamstring, and expect a response. Red Sox fans tested him twice in less than two weeks, and the second time, Contreras fired right back.
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After another ground ball drew boos from the Fenway crowd, he fired back by cupping his hand to his ear and challenging them to keep going. Boston still lost 7-6, but Contreras made his point. And despite the ugly exchange with the crowd, he made it clear afterward that his feelings toward Boston had not changed.
“Willson Contreras put his hand to his ear after some Red Sox fans seemingly booed him for jogging on a ground out.” Jomboy Media posted.
The first time Red Sox fans booed Willson Contreras on August 8, he deserved criticism at the plate after going 1-for-5 with three strikeouts in a 7-3 loss. But when the boos came again less than two weeks later, the situation was different.
Contreras went 2-for-5 with a run and an RBI against Arizona, yet Fenway still got on him. This time, he had enough.
On Wednesday, the Red Sox lost an early 2-0 lead when Payton Tolle gave up two consecutive doubles to Jose Fernandez and Ryan Waldschmidt in the fifth. The inning unraveled further when Tolle walked Corbin Carroll, putting runners on. Another double to Gabriel Moreno later, the D’backs were leading 3-2.
For the series finale, the D’backs and the Red Sox played a back-and-forth game. In the sixth inning, Lars Nootbar’s two-run shot extended the lead. However, Boston promptly recovered, tying the score at 5-5 with Michael Gasper’s homer. As neither team took the lead, the game went to extra innings.
D-backs Nolan Arenado broke the tie with a broken-bat bloop, sparking a two-run tenth. Jovani Moran gave up three straight walks to load the bases, allowing Max Kepler to score. Then, the Red Sox entered the fateful tenth, trailing 7-5.
Willson Contreras, the star of the Red Sox’s comeback this season, came to bat in the bottom frame with one out. He hit a run-scoring grounder to third, but opted not to run at full speed as the D’backs’ 3B Fernandez threw him out. A section of the nearly sold-out crowd (36,540) at Fenway Park was vocal about their disapproval. It came as a shock since Contreras’ recent struggles while playing through a sore left hamstring are not a secret.
“I’m not gonna get hurt running out a ground ball,” Contreras said, per MLB.com. “And if you’re a real fan and you know baseball, there’s no case for me to hustle out of the box. I’m not 100 percent. We never are, but I’m taking care of my leg. If I have to run, I push a little bit.”
On August 8, Contreras faced the same situation after he hit a grounder and did not run hard to first base. It caused Fenway Park to erupt in disapproval. However, he later cited his sore hamstring as a reason for not running.
Firing back at fans with gestures is becoming part of baseball’s theater. Players hear the boos, take the heat, then wait for their moment to answer. Trevor Bauer did it in 2021 after carving up the Giants for 11 strikeouts. As Oracle Park booed him off the mound, Bauer cupped his hand to his ear and raised his arms, basically telling the crowd to get louder.
And Javier Báez gave the same message to his own fans in Detroit. Tigers supporters had been hammering him during a terrible start to the 2024 season, but when Báez finally blasted a home run to spark a comeback, he rounded the bases with his hand to his ear and Adolis García took it to another level in the 2023 ALCS.
Astros fans had been on him hard, but García responded by crushing Houston in Game 7 before cupping his ear toward the crowd during an 11-4 rout. That is the trend now. Contreras found himself in the same spot, only this time the boos came from his own crowd while he was trying to protect an injured leg.
Contreras had Chad Tracy’s backing to protect his sore leg, and after tweaking it again Tuesday, he was not about to risk making it worse.
So when fans booed him for not running hard, Contreras answered by cupping his hand to his ear. That gesture quickly turned into a confrontation with a fan near the dugout.
Willson Contreras confronts a fan
Already fired up by the boos, Contreras got into a verbal spat with a fan near the end of the Red Sox dugout. He went into the clubhouse after the game, but the situation did not end there. Contreras returned shortly after with security personnel, while Jarren Duran was also reportedly pulled into the confrontation.
After the game, Contreras was asked about the incident. Having calmed down, the level-headed first baseman did not elaborate; rather, chose to joke about it.
“He was inviting me to dinner. I was like, ‘Nah, I’m good with it,’” the Red Sox star reportedly said.
Contreras is batting .284 this season, with 25 homers and 75 RBI. As their 16-game stretch (8-8) came to an end on Wednesday, he spoke about the importance of the off-day they got.
“It feels heavy in our bodies this time of the year,” Contreras told MLB.com. “We grind through it. We played our best throughout 16 days in a row, and we lost today. Tough loss, but it’s baseball. But we have an off-day tomorrow. Reset, come back and win.”
The Red Sox are firmly in the Wild Card race, owning the second spot and will play the San Francisco Giants next.