Things got a bit heated between the Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins on Saturday over at Fenway Park.
In the fourth inning of the contest, Ceddanne Rafaela stepped up to the plate and ripped a base hit to right field with the Red Sox looking at a 2-0 deficit. Mickey Gasper scored on the base hit and Willson Contreras tried to knot the score at two, but was thrown out at the plate. That’s not all, though. Contreras collided with Victor Caratini, which led to some words around the plate and then the benches ultimately cleared.
Benches clear in Boston after Willson Contreras runs into Victor Caratini at the platepic.twitter.com/eUFq6xvaQZ
— Underdog MLB (@UnderdogMLB) May 23, 2026
Words were exchanged, but there were no punches thrown or anything of that nature. It was a bit surprising how the baseball world reacted and he made it clear after the game that there was no “bad intention,” as transcribed by MLB.com’s Ian Browne.
“No, it wasn’t anything malicious or anything at all, it was not bad intention,” said Contreras. “I played with Caratini with [the Cubs for a] long time, so there weren’t any bad intentions behind that. When I was getting to home plate, when I thought it was going to be out, I tried to stop myself, but at the end of the day, if I dive, I might have hit him harder.”
It shouldn’t have been a big story, but it got the fans’ attention.
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