Willson Contreras hit a 421-foot homer, ripped open the moment with a bat flip and shouted “Venezuela,” then broke down in tears in the dugout after a 6-3 Red Sox win over Washington as he grappled with the earthquake devastation back home.
BOSTON — The Red Sox dugout was supposed to be the place where Willson Contreras could simply shake off baseball and get ready for the next at-bat.
Instead, the night around him carried the weight of home.
When Contreras launched a 421-foot homer. his reaction was immediate and loud—a massive bat flip that seemed to stop time for a second. But the celebration didn’t last as long as the scoreboard did. After ripping around the bases on the three-run shot. Contreras eventually broke down in tears in the dugout. the anguish from a pair of massive earthquakes in Venezuela pouring out of him even as the Red Sox held on for a 6-3 victory over Washington on Monday night.
“Everything that’s going on in Venezuela, it’s not easy to hide,” Contreras told reporters after the game. “It’s not easy just to show up and play with everything that is going on in my country.”
The earthquakes have left hundreds dead, and Contreras said the pull to return home to help is real. For now, he can’t make that trip. So he turned his frustration into one unmistakable moment on the field—shouting “Venezuela” as he made the trip around the bases.
“I feel like I could be there helping people and I can’t do that,” Contreras said. “And the homer just represents something that I pray to God for it to happen, because that’s the only thing I can do for Venezuela right now physically. And that’s why I was emotional.”
The 34-year-old was born in Puerto Cabello, about three hours west of the capital of Caracas. In his remarks, he described how hard it has been to watch his country struggle through the aftermath while volunteers and aid packages reportedly struggle to get through to those who need them.
“It sucks seeing so many bad things going on in Venezuela,” Contreras said. “I don’t think we deserve all of this. We’re a good people. Good country. We are good people.”
His homer—his 18th of the season—came with the unmistakable tension of two worlds colliding: a powerful moment of baseball joy, and the reality that far from Fenway, families are trying to survive what’s been left behind.
For all the emotion he carried, Contreras’s night on the field ended earlier than he’d probably wanted. First base umpire Nic Lentz ejected him in the second inning after Lentz ruled Contreras failed to check his swing on a Miles Mikolas pitch that ended up being a strikeout.
Willson Contreras Boston Red Sox Washington 6-3 victory 421-foot homer bat flip Venezuela earthquakes Puerto Cabello Nic Lentz Miles Mikolas