The Summer of Willson Contreras

He’s been ejected over check swings. He’s been ejected over absurd comments made by people, who should have been ejected and weren’t. He’s been thrown at and he’s been hit….. a lot. (18 times after Friday night’s savage beaning in LA, 4^th most in his career and is just behind his torrid 24-in-2022 HBP pace for most in a season of his career.) He calls himself Bowser, because well he looks like the villain from Super Mario Bros. Most wouldn’t like being compared in the looks department to a scowling, angry, cartoon turtle, but then again he’s always embraced the villain persona. Who else strode to the plate at the Home Run Derby and as boos rained down from the Philly crowd, he admonished them to boo harder. He would have been a great heel in the early 80’s, you can picture him teaming with the Iron Shiek to take on the British Bulldogs and getting pelted with crumpled up Coke cups (not a sponsor), pop corn boxes and hot dog wrappers.

But while he makes a great heel to the other 29 teams in Major League Baseball, Willson Contreras has been the biggest babyface in Boston sports this summer. With the confidence of George Scott, the style of Manny Ramirez and the fire of Pedro Martinez, Willson Contreras has walked into Boston and become the leader we didn’t think we had. After the Red Sox 15-game winning streak was snapped, (interim) manager Chad Tracy was asked what he said to the team and he said “Sonny and Willson were already up there talking to the guys when I got to the clubhouse.”

Red Sox fans love his massive bat flips, his slow walks out of the batters box and his imploring his teammate and fans a like to get on their feet. (Other teams, probably not so much.) Whether it is belting a go-ahead homer in Sacramento and patiently waiting for the ball to land before leaving the batters box and underlining the Boston on his jersey (David Ortiz would be proud) or ripping a game tying double against the Orioles and screaming at the dugout that America’s Most Beloved Ballpark was “my fudging house!” (Only he didn’t say fudge. At least I don’t think he said fudge.)

Most of us are guilty of giving up on this team after the first 3 months of horrendous baseball. I kept watching but as friend of the program Mike Violette would say “That is one dead-ass 9.” However Contreras never stopped trying to push this team forward. Heck, he started bench clearing incidents just to get the fellas fired up. It seems like everything he’s doing it to get the team going and happily for all of us, after 3-months of priming, the engine has finally fired up!

I’ve loved watching this guy all summer: that right handed swing at Fenway, his unbuckled confidence that he’s going deep with every shoe top swing, challenging the city of Philadelphia during the Derby and then swinging as hard has he possibly could to try and hit that scoreboard more than 500-feet away and almost doing it. What has me most enthralled by Willson Contreras is his sense of the moment.

On Thursday night in a sandlot in Sacramento, the Sox trailed the Athletics by a run, 4-3 in the 8^th inning. Wilyer Abreu crushed a game-tying home run. The crowd, mostly Red Sox fans (Sac-town has always been a Sox hot-bed) were still buzzing when Contreras stepped into the box next. And you knew, you KNEW he was going to come undone on the first pitch he saw, because he knew, he KNEW that the momentum had shifted. The reliever was probably going to come back with a fastball and if he went deep in that moment the dugout would explode and they did when he crushed the first pitch into the twilight of the California Capital.

I watched the replay of the back-to-back home runs 50 times on Friday and listened to Will Flemming’s bellowing call just as many. The energy that Wilyer & Willson have brought to this team has been infectious during the month of July. I say this with the most sincerity and joy, they’re turned us into a WBC team. I enjoyed watching this tournament this spring and seeing the passion on these teams from the Dominican, Puerto Rico and Venezuela. With 4 players from Venezuela in the lineup on Friday night, we have a similar spirit to that squad that won the WBC this spring and I for one am here for it.

What happened Friday night in Los Angeles was tough to watch. Dodgers reliever Will Klein threw a first pitch fastball to Contreras that came within inches of the slugger’s jaw. The next pitch was low and away but the third pitch hit Willson square in the helmet, just behind the earflap. He stayed in the game to run the bases, but was then removed for what stands as Major League Baseball’s version of concussion protocol. (I’m sure the Red Sox training staff probably wrapped a giant ace bandage around his head like Bud Abbott or Lou Costello had a toothache in the 40’s and then pushed him down some stairs.) The Red Sox would go on to win that night 9-4 without their best hitter, but you hope there aren’t lingering affects and Bowser can get back to doing what he’s done all season, seizing the moment.

Red Sox Notes

- The numbers from July are staggering- 21-4 is the best record for a single month in Red Sox history. The 15-game winning streak was the second longest ever. After the win on Saturday night in Los Angeles, the Red Sox had won a game that they had trailed in for the 10^th time, IN THEIR LAST 14 GAMES! (For a team that didn’t overcome a 3-run deficit until mid-summer, this is unfathomable.) By winning Saturday night’s game, the Red Sox are clinched their 8^th consecutive series win, something last done by a Red Sox team in 2013. (That team went on to win the World Series.)

- Ceddanne Rafaela has been white hot since the All-Star break. In 2025, I thought he should’ve made the American League squad, he didn’t and after the break he went into a below the Mendoza-Line slump that lasted until the end of September. This year, he made the All-Star team and in the 16-games since the break (not counting Sunday night’s finale vs the Dodgers) Rafaela has 22 hits (half of those for extra bases), 13 runs scored, 6 home runs and 17 RBI. For those of you who don’t listen to the Section 10 podcast (I recommend it) they give out the Klark’s Ketchup Series MVP award for ever series that the Red Sox win. Rafaela has won the last two awards and will certainly walk away with the award from the Dodgers series as well. Drizzling ketchup 3 straight series just does not happen.

- I mentioned Contreras’s 18 hit by pitch’s this season, the all-time team record is 35 set by Don Baylor in 1986. (Also an American League record.) Second most in team history? Don Baylor, 24 in 1987. (How many seasons did Baylor play in Boston? 2! The career Red Sox record is 86 set by Kevin Youkilis. Baylor ‘86 seems out of reach for Contreras, but the countdown to Baylor ’87 is very much on!

- I know the Dodgers trading for Tarik Skubal has nothing to do with the Red Sox beating the Dodgers two games in a row, but I like to believe that it did.

- The trade deadline will be fun to follow today, It really does feel like the Red Sox are going to trade for a shortstop, but not getting my hopes up. Though I am conflicted on trading away Franklin Arias, the #3 prospect in the game, who just so happens to play shortstop, just so we can get one now right now.

- As always, I’d like another bullpen arm (something about me, is I can never have too much depth in my bullpen). The pen has been outstanding but like a gallon of milk, you might as well grab one while you’re shopping. Though I am very intrigued by Tanner Houck coming back as a reliever. I always thought that was his true calling, he was a closer at Missouri and I always thought his fast ball, sweeper and cross body motion would work better out of the bullpen. Plus he’s best friends with Garrett Whitlock, so there is some synergy there.

-The Red Sox just swept the defending World Series champion Dodgers. This is the 6th sweep the Red Sox have had since June 25th. This is unbelievable.