Willson Contreras turned Yankees game today into more than a scoreboard story. He homered off Will Warren in the bottom of the third, then the matchup boiled over in the fifth during Boston's 6-1 win.
The first flashpoint came when Contreras sent a towering home run off Warren. The second came later, when he stepped back in and took offense after Warren came up and in on him.
Contreras And Warren In The Fifth
Contreras drew a walk in the fifth inning, then started jawing with Warren. Benches and bullpens cleared during the brief fracas, but no punches were thrown.
That sequence fit the edge Contreras said baseball needs more often. After Boston's 6-1 win, he called it “Part of the game” and added, “That’s it.” He also said, “Everything you saw tonight I think is part of the game. I think so many people are trying to take that away from the game and I think we need a little bit more of that saltiness, or rivalry, I’ll say that.”
Boston And The Yankees
The game stayed in Boston's hands from there, and Contreras said he was glad Boston won. He added, “It makes baseball fun. It engages more people around too, it engages more viewers and all that stuff, talking about TV and all that stuff.”
His biggest off-field concern sat far from the box score. Contreras said none of his friends or family were killed in the earthquakes in Venezuela this week, but he described the situation there as hard to separate from a game. “It’s really sad to live through this,” he said.
He said he had scrubbed personal photos from social media to help amplify aid efforts. He also said “thousands of people” were trying to help with humanitarian donations and that some groups in Venezuela were being denied access because they were not part of the government. For Boston and the Yankees, the night ended with the game over; for Contreras, the clash on the field and the crisis off it were both part of the same day.
