BOSTON — For Boston Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras, the weight of tragedy unfolding thousands of miles from the baseball diamond has hung heavy over him in recent days. Back in his native Venezuela, communities are still reeling from the aftermath of two powerful earthquakes that have claimed hundreds of lives, leaving countless others displaced and trapped amid crumbled infrastructure. That pain, Contreras says, is impossible to leave off the field.
The pull to fly home and join relief efforts to support his fellow Venezuelans is a visceral, urgent feeling for the 34-year-old veteran, who was born in Puerto Cabello, a coastal city roughly three hours west of the nation’s capital Caracas. But with the Red Sox in the middle of a packed MLB regular season schedule, that immediate trip home was not a possibility. So on Monday night, when Boston took on the Washington Nationals, Contreras channeled his grief, love, and hope into the only way he knew how to honor his homeland.
In a game that would end in a 6-3 Red Sox victory, Contreras connected with a pitch for a 421-foot three-run home run — his 18th long ball of the 2024 season. As he rounded the bases after the hit, he turned toward the Boston dugout and shouted a single, defiant word: “Venezuela.” After he crossed home plate and returned to the dugout, the emotion that had built up since the earthquakes struck last week boiled over, and Contreras broke down in tears, his anguish for a nation reeling from disaster on full display.
Contreras did not hide his frustration with the slow pace of aid reaching vulnerable communities after the quakes, telling reporters post-game that reports of blocked aid shipments and struggling volunteers have made the pain even harder to bear from afar. “Everything that’s going on in Venezuela, it’s not easy to hide,” he said. “It’s not easy just to show up and play with everything that is going on in my country. It sucks seeing so many bad things going on in Venezuela. I don’t think we deserve all of this. We’re a good people. Good country. We are good people.”
“I feel like I could be there helping people and I can’t do that,” he added. “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.”
Contreras’ night on the field ended earlier than expected, however. In the second inning, first base umpire Nic Lentz ejected him from the game after ruling Contreras had not checked his swing on a pitch from Miles Mikolas that resulted in a strikeout. Despite the early exit, the moment of his home run and raw display of emotion for his homeland remained the defining image of the night for the Red Sox and their fans.