LOS ANGELES — Minutes after getting hit in the helmet by a 95 mph fastball in the third inning Friday, Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras left the game due to “precautionary reasons,” according to the club.
Contreras took a Will Klein pitch to the head with one out in the inning, then ran the bases, but did not come back out for defense in the bottom of the frame. The Red Sox shifted Nick Sogard from second base to first base to replace Contreras and inserted Anthony Seigler at second.
Contreras went through part of the league’s concussion protocol during the game, interim manager Chad Tracy said, and initial signs are that he is OK. There’s at least a chance he’s in Boston’s lineup Saturday night against All-Star Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
“He’s had some tests done so far, which have been fine,” Tracy said. “The caveat to that is that with stuff like that in the head when you’re worried about concussions, you’ve got to wait and let him sleep. He’s got to get up tomorrow, see how he feels in the morning and do activity. That’s the second part of that. Good so far, but we have to wait and see how he feels tomorrow.”
Klein, pitching with two men on base, brushed Contreras back with a high inside fastball at 95.3 mph to start the at-bat in the third. Two pitches later, he hit the slugger right in the side of the helmet at 95.4 mph. Contreras went down to the dirt but got up as Tracy and a team trainer came to visit him.
Contreras advanced to second base when Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman booted a Masataka Yoshida grounder that was scored as an error that scored two runs. He was stranded there, then taken out of the game between half-innings when he returned to the dugout.
“Obviously, he got hit in the ear flap so I think his ear was ringing a little bit,” Tracy said. “It was a hard thrower that hit him right in the ear. Between that and everything that happened, it just felt like, precautionarily, we should get him out of there and start the process of making sure he’s OK.”
Contreras was not available to speak to reporters after the game due to league rules during concussion testing. The Red Sox rallied back to beat the Dodgers, 9-4, in the opener of a three-game series between the clubs. Ceddanne Rafaela (two-run homer) and Andruw Monasterio (two-run double) had big hits in a five-run seventh inning.
Contreras had quite the eventful day Thursday in Sacramento as he was the target of Jarren Duran’s outburst in the sixth inning and then later hit the game-winning homer in a 4-3 Red Sox victory. Contreras struck out in his first plate appearance against opener Edgardo Henriquez.
