Neither Willson Contreras nor Chad Tracy were sure why Cade Cavalli chose the words “sit down, boy” to taunt the former after a fourth-inning strikeout, but the Boston Red Sox first baseman and interim manager agreed wholeheartedly on one aspect of Tuesday night’s brawl:
That the Washington Nationals starting pitcher should have been ejected right along with them, outfielder Nate Eaton and Nationals pitcher Miles Mikolas.
“Obviously, it escalated,” Tracy said. “Felt as though the comment made, you know, ‘Sit down, boy’ at the top of your lungs was part of what caused that to happen.
“And understood after everything that happened, the people that they chose that were going to leave the game, I just felt like the other pitcher should have been one of them, too. That was my biggest complaint there, was, ‘Why is he still in the game?’”
“Yeah, to be honest, yes,” Contreras said postgame, when asked if he was surprised that Cavalli was allowed to stay in the game.
Contreras said he had even praised Cavalli to Nationals catcher Keibert Ruiz earlier in the game, and inquired as to whether the Nationals had acquired the starter or developed him in their farm system.
“Prior to that, I was talking to Keibert Ruiz, and you can go ask him, (about) how that guy is, that guy was,” Contreras said. “He has good stuff. … And then he struck me out on a good pitch, I was walking back to the dugout, and then he did what he did and the rest was history.”
“He was like, instigating, and I snapped, and it happened,” Contreras added.
Cavalli’s words were audible in the game footage, but Tracy hadn’t reviewed that before his postgame media availability. But Tracy heard them spoken in real time, from all the way in his seat in the home dugout.
“I heard that from where I was sitting,” Tracy said. “Interesting choice of words.”
That Contreras is likely to receive a multi-game suspension for his part in the “kerfuffle” (Tracy’s word), makes the lack of ejection for Cavalli all the more frustrating.
“I just felt like that was a part of the equation, and I don’t know why (Cavalli) was still in the game,” Tracy said. “I mean, you’re worried about (discipline from the league), but I also want it to be looked at fully on what happened on the other end of this, that seemed they didn’t take into consideration.”
It’s been a tough stretch for Contreras. He was ejected in Monday’s game as well and has been tremendously impacted by the earthquakes that rocked his native Venezuela last week.
“(I) feel like everything’s against me right now,” Contreras said. “Got ejected last night for nothing, ejected today even though I was walking back to the dugout.”