BOSTON — Willson Contreras, who became the Cardinals’ DH catcher and will soon be a catcher again, has shown a knack for getting under the skin and inside the heads of opposing fans and players. His spell has a particularly strong effect on pitchers.
Earlier this season, Contreras’ “mind games” with Madison Bumgarner caused a minor meltdown for the battle-hardened left-hander with a stunning postseason record. The Diamondbacks released Bumgarner shortly after, and this inning is his last inning in the majors for now.
On Saturday, celebrating his 31st birthday, Contreras’ curse landed on Boston Red Sox seamer Kenley Jansen during a crucial inning as the Cardinals rallied and hit three runs in the ninth inning for their second straight win as they defeated the Red Sox defeated 4-3 in the second game of their three-game set in front of a sold-out crowd at Fenway Park.
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“It’s huge,” Contreras said of the chance of a second game in a row. “Especially against Jansen. We all know him. Great career as a closer. Hopefully he’s a Hall of Famer. We respect him, but we did our job last night and today – didn’t give up and played to the last game.”
The Cardinals, who had three runs in the ninth inning against Jansen the night before, were down 3-1 going into Saturday’s ninth inning.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora passed the ball to Jansen, offering him a chance to make amends and recover immediately from a difficult game rather than wait. Jansen, desperate to numb the pain after giving up the lead in the ninth round the night before, came in search of his 401st save of his career.
Instead, the Cardinals turned the tables on Jansen and the Red Sox for the second year in a row with the help of pitch clock, clutch hitting, attentive base running and hustle.
After Paul Goldschmidt hit a leadoff walk early in the frame, Contreras managed a walk despite Jansen only throwing two balls. Contreras talked Jansen into two pitch timer violations during the plate performance, including the one that led to ball four and put Contreras on base.
“That’s what the pitch clock allows you to do,” said Contreras, putting himself in Jansen’s head. “I know some closers like to find their rhythm, but my job as a batsman is not to let him get into that rhythm. So I let the clock tick all the way down to eight.
“It’s not my fault. It’s something I use for my own benefit and for the benefit of the team. Today it worked.”
Throughout the season, Contreras has made it a habit, up to the very last second, to be allowed to have one foot outside the batter’s box without suffering an infraction as a batter. Pitchers typically have to wait until the batter is in the box and call attention to the pitcher — which usually means tilting their head up and making eye contact with the pitcher on the mound.
As well as taking his time getting into the box, Contreras makes brief eye contact with one foot outside the box and then lowers his gaze before stepping fully inside the box.
Several times this season, Contreras’ habit has resulted in home plate umpires issuing warnings or stopping play before a pitcher throws a pitch while Contreras is in the box but not looking at the pitcher. His intentional walking around raises concerns among some pitchers.
It also backfired once or twice when a pitcher got away with a quick pitch against Contreras when he was in the box but wasn’t paying attention to the pitcher before he started his throw, but the referee let go of the pitch .
“I have to make sure that both feet are in the penalty area,” Jansen told reporters in the Red Sox clubhouse. “Because you see the batsman going up, you see the hat looking at you, but then you have to watch your feet. When your feet are out of the box. The second time he looked at me and then when I got home he put his head down and his feet were out.”
Contreras’ walk brought the crucial runs to base with no outs. After Nolan Arenado showed up, Nolan Gorman hit Jansen for a second straight pinch hit in the ninth inning.
Last night, Gorman hit a double home run into the right field stand to secure the lead to victory. This time, he set up an RBI double that rolled into the wall in right midfield and put the runners in second and third with an out and the deciding run at third base.
“Anytime you have a pitcher in mind, it’s nice to capitalize on that,” said Gorman, who praised Contreras as both a teammate and a competitor.
Left-handed hitter Brendan Donovan came on the plate as a pinch hitter in place of Dylan Carlson. The Red Sox purposely went to Donovan to load the bases. Alec Burleson, pinch hit for Paul DeJong and a soft grounder for Red Sox second baseman Pablo Reyes.
The Red Sox could have ended the game with a double play, but Donovan slowed and didn’t slip. That forced the Reyes to try at turn two and gave shortstop Kike Hernandez a slightly hampered trajectory.
Donovan said as soon as he entered first base, coach Stubby Clapp instructed him to make sure he positioned himself so the first baseman couldn’t catch a line drive and also to tag him to double it. Clapp also begged him not to get in a tag on a groundball and to stay upright as long as possible if the Red Sox had to try to turn a double play.
“It’s hard to say,” Donovan said of the impact he had on the throw. “I’d like to think that we’re proud of our baserunning. Maybe it was a factor. Maybe he just didn’t have a good grip. But it’s cool to see the ball rolling in our direction.”
Hernandez uncorked a miss while Burleson charged down the line. Not only did the Red Sox fail to turn the double play, but the error allowed the runner from third base to score and also kicked off the run from second base.
Reliever Giovanny Gallegos threw a scoreless ninth inning to seal the win. Burleson pulled off a great sliding catch in left field in the ninth game to keep the Red Sox from recovering.
“The guys really trust each other and compete to the end,” said Cardinal manager Oliver Marmol. “Today was another example of that. It took our entire team to achieve this victory. It’s starting to fit together.”
In today’s Ten Hochman video at 10 a.m. – presented by Siteman Cancer Center and Window Nation – Ben Hochman talks about the popular Busch Stadium II, which opened on this day in 1966. Also, happy birthday to blues legend Bernie Federko! And as always, Hochman chooses a random St. Louis Cards card from the hat!
Benjamin Hochman
STL sports
An evening look at the day’s most important sports stories and a first look at the topics St. Louis fans will be talking about tomorrow.