Twenty-three times before, Willson Contreras took the hit and moved on. Time number 24, he decided to answer — twice. First with his cleats on second base. Then with a microphone.
On April 6, 2026 at Fenway Park, Brandon Woodruff drilled the Red Sox catcher with a 92.9 mph sinker on his left hand in the third inning — pitch No. 40 of Woodruff’s night. The Brewers challenged the call; manager Pat Murphy argued it wasn’t a hit by pitch. Replay confirmed it was. Contreras stayed in the game, and what happened next went everywhere.
The Slide That Said Everything
A few innings later, Contreras reached second base on a slide that caught Brewers shortstop David Hamilton in the left knee with his spikes — tearing Hamilton’s pants in the process. No words. No staredown. The message rode in on the cleats.
The video spread fast, and so did Contreras’s postgame comments.
«That’s the 24th time I’ve been hit in my career — 24,» he told reporters after the game. «That’s the sixth time [Woodruff] has hit me, and they always say they’re not trying to hit me. That’s gotten old. So the next time they hit me again, I’m going to take one of them out.»
No Team Has Hit Him More Than Milwaukee
This isn’t a coincidence or a bad-luck streak. The Brewers have hit Contreras 24 times in his career — ten more than the second team on that list. Woodruff alone accounts for six of those 24. And every single time, the explanation has been the same: not intentional.
«They always say they’re not trying to hit me,» Contreras said. «That’s gotten old.»
The April 6 plunking was the 131st hit by pitch of his career.
The Brother in the Other Dugout
What made this episode genuinely unlike any before it: William Contreras, Willson’s younger brother, was behind the plate for Milwaukee. When Woodruff hit his older brother and the temperature spiked, William was the first one to step in and cool things down — the catcher playing peacemaker between his own pitcher and his own flesh and blood.
It’s the kind of moment baseball writes on its own.
The Game, the Series, the Numbers
Milwaukee won that night, 8-6. Garrett Mitchell‘s go-ahead single in the eighth inning was the difference. The loss dropped Boston to 2-8; the Brewers were 8-2, tied for the best record in MLB at that point.
But the Red Sox took the next two games of the series, 3-2 and 5-0, with Garrett Crockett and Sonny Gray shutting Milwaukee down.
As for Contreras on Monday? He reached base five times, doubled home a run in the fourth, and hit a solo home run in the ninth. Not bad for a guy who spent part of the night getting drilled.
The Numbers Behind the Name
Contreras’s 2026 season by the numbers (Baseball Savant):
- 535 plate appearances
- 27 home runs, 81 RBI
- AVG: .275 | OPS: .902
- xwOBA: .376 — 95th percentile (elite)
- Exit velocity: 89.8 mph average
- Barrel rate: 13.3% — 90th percentile
- Hard-hit rate: 44.2%
- Bat speed: 77 mph average — 96th percentile
The contact metrics tell a different story: his squared-up rate sits at the 6th percentile and his whiff rate at the 13th. But when Contreras makes contact, it’s the kind pitchers remember — whether they meant to hit him or not.
