Out of the hundreds of active Major League Baseball players, only one, Starling Marte, has been hit by more pitches than Willson Contreras.

And of Contreras’ 130 career hit-by-pitches, 23 have come at the hands of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Make that 24 as of Monday night, when Brewers starter Brandon Woodruff hit Contreras on the first pitch he saw.

Contreras, already hit by Woodruff five times in seven games since 2018, was incensed during and after the game ended.

“It’s not just a hit-by-pitch,” Contreras said as he stood in the clubhouse after Boston’s 8-6 loss. “That is the 24th time that they hit me in my career. 24th. That’s the sixth time he hit me. And they always say, ‘I’m not trying to hit you.’ ”

“That gets old,” Contreras continued, “so the next time, they hit again, I’m going to take one of them out. That’s the message.”

“It’s not coincidence,” he added. “They’re going there with a purpose. And that’s fine, that’s pitching. But next time you hit me, the message (is) clear.”

The Brewers challenged the hit-by-pitch call, but it stood, meaning the review didn’t provide sufficient evidence to overturn.

Contreras then slid hard into second on Wilyer Abreu’s RBI force-out, and made contact with former Red Sox infielder David Hamilton in the process. The Brewers felt it was intentional.

“I wouldn’t say purposefully, because he stayed on the bag, and that was a perfect legal slide,” Contreras said.

Contreras spent a decade as a division rival of the Brewers, first on the Chicago Cubs, then on St. Louis Cardinals. Though he’s now an AL East player, he anticipated tension during this series.

“I won’t lie, it’s different with them,” Contreras said of the Brewers. “I talked to, I can’t remember if it was (Andruw) Monasterio or (Ceddanne) Rafaela, and I said, ‘These guys are going to hit me today, for sure.’ And they did.

“And that’s going to happen, maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day. But they’re gonna hit me again, and we’ll see what happens.”

Woodruff, for his part, told reporters in the visitors clubhouse, “We’ve been through this … it seems like every year. 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.”

“We’ve seen that skit for the last 10 years,” echoed Brewers star Christian Yelich, “it’s nothing new.”

Contreras went 3 for 3 in the contest, with two RBI, a walk, a double off Woodruff, and a ninth-inning Green Monster home run, off Angel Zerpa. It was his fourth game with a career-high five times on base, and first since August 11, 2023.

And Contreras did admit, “Sometimes when I play angry, I play better. I don’t know why, but that’s who I am.”