Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras has a long history with the Brewers, having played for two of Milwaukee’s division rivals—the Cubs and Cardinals—for 11 seasons before making the move to Boston in the offseason.
It took less than one full game for his heated past with the Brewers to infiltrate Fenway Park. Contreras may have thought he left his rivalry with the Brew Crew behind when he left the NL Central and joined the AL East, but that did not turn out to be the case.
Entering play on Monday night, Contreras had been hit by pitches 23 times in his career against the Brewers. That tally increased to 24 by the end of Monday’s game, and Contreras wasn’t happy about it.
Of the 24 instances in which Contreras has been beaned by a Brewers pitcher, six of them, including Monday night’s, were against Brandon Woodruff. During the fourth inning, Woodruff clipped Contreras with a fastball that ran just a bit too far inside. That certainly did not sit well with Contreras, who barked at Woodruff while angrily strutting to first base, escorted by his brother William.
Willson Contreras didn't like being hit by Brewers pitcher Brandon Woodruff
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) April 7, 2026
He then took a hard slide into second base the next at-bat pic.twitter.com/VwX1uxQ33i
On the ensuing play—a ground ball to second base—Contreras slid hard into the bag to break up the double play. The slide had a bit of added aggression to it, but ultimately didn’t lead to much; still, it was clear that tensions were high. And after the game, the veteran slugger said his piece.
“[The Brewers] always say, ‘I’m not trying to hit you.’ That gets old. So, next time they hit me again, I’m going to take one of them out. That’s a message,” Contreras warned, via Tim Healey of The Boston Globe.
In his career, Contreras has been hit by 131 pitches. 24 of those have come against Milwaukee, with no other organization responsible for more than 14. Among active MLB players, only Starling Marte (166) has been hit by more pitches. Contreras's tendency to crowd the plate in the batter’s box certainly plays a role in the frequency with which he is hit by pitches, but it’s still eye-opening that he’s been hit 24 times in 121 career games against the Brewers.
Brewers players weren’t exactly buying Contreras’s threatening message, however. After the game, Christian Yelich was asked about the incident and Contreras’s response, to which Yelich said, “We’ve seen that skit for the last 10 years. It’s nothing new.”
Woodruff also weighed in on the situation, saying, “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.”
The Red Sox and Brewers will be back at it again on Tuesday night, and all eyes will be on Contreras when he steps into the batter’s box. If he wears another pitch on Tuesday, things could get ugly at Fenway Park.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Willson Contreras’s Beef With Brewers Continues After Latest HBP.
