Willson Contreras Took a 95-MPH Fastball to the Helmet the Red Sox Pulled Him Right Away
Willson Contreras walked to first base wearing the mark of a 95-mph fastball on his helmet.
The Boston Red Sox slugger stepped in against Dodgers reliever Will Klein in the top of the third at Dodger Stadium on Friday night. Runners were at the corners. One out. The first pitch nearly clocked Contreras in the face. He got out of the way of that one.
Two pitches later, he was not so lucky. Klein came up and in again, and this time the ball caught Contreras squarely on the helmet. The loud bang was audible on the live broadcast. Cameras panned to a stunned Dodgers dugout. Jomboy Media captured the sequence and posted it within minutes.
The wild part: Contreras stayed in the game and went to first base. He was moving. He was talking. The Red Sox were understandably not going to leave him out there long, and they replaced him with Anthony Seigler at first before the next half-inning.
Interim Red Sox manager Chad Tracy addressed it after the game. He called the substitution “precautionary” rather than a response to any specific alarming symptom. Contreras underwent testing, and initial results have come back fine, but Tracy stressed the club has to be more cautious with anything involving the head because of concussion risk.
That is the right call. Concussions in baseball are still not treated with the seriousness they deserve compared to other contact sports. Getting hit in the head with a projectile traveling at 95 miles per hour is exactly the kind of moment where teams should err heavily on the side of caution. Contreras has enough of a career to protect and enough at stake to warrant patience.
The bigger question is what happens next. Contreras missed time earlier this year already after an incident involving a baserunning decision. Now this. The Red Sox are trying to hold together an inconsistent lineup, and losing Contreras for any extended stretch would be a serious blow.
Klein is not a headhunter. Nobody thinks that pitch was intentional. He was trying to elevate a fastball to the same spot that Contreras had already dodged one from, and it just got away. Command mistakes at that velocity are terrifying. That is the game. But the Red Sox will remember, and if the same pitcher comes up and in again next time these teams meet, someone is going to have a conversation.
For now, Boston is watching for any delayed symptoms. Contreras is on the concussion protocol path. He might not miss much time. He might miss a week. The team is not committing to a timeline, and that is fine.
What matters is that Contreras walked off the field on his own. What matters is that he took a 95-mph fastball to the head and stayed lucid. Baseball has seen worse outcomes from lesser pitches. The sport got lucky Friday night, and so did the Red Sox.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
