ST. LOUIS -- The benches cleared early in the Cardinals’ 3-0 victory over the Padres on Friday night at Busch Stadium, after Willson Contreras was hit by a Nick Pivetta fastball.
Ultimately, nothing came of the incident -- aside from warnings for both sides and, eventually, the first run of the game.
Leading off the bottom of the second, Pivetta came inside with a 93.7 mph fastball. It caught Contreras in the elbow guard, the National League-leading 15th time this season Contreras has been hit by a pitch.
As Contreras tossed his bat to the side in frustration, he glared at Pivetta, who stalked toward the plate, looking for a baseball from plate ump Clint Vondrak. Pivetta shouted back at Contreras, and the two began exchanging words while Contreras walked up the first-base line. Afterward, Pivetta said he took exception to Contreras’ reaction.
“I don’t hit very many guys,” Pivetta said. “For him to stare at me and, I feel like, from my side, try to intimidate me … I’m not going to back down. I’m going to go out and do my thing. I’m going to control the inside part of the plate.”
In the immediate aftermath of the HBP, Padres catcher Elias Díaz stepped between the two, as the dugouts emptied. Eventually, the bullpens followed suit.
“If you get hit, you're not going to feel good about it,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “For me, it's not much ado about nothing, because there was a ball thrown in the 90s that you get hit by, and that can't feel good. There's a reaction to it. I'm confident to know there was zero intent to that, but I understand exception takes place. And once he takes the exception, now we got both sides that are going to come out and see what's going on.”
Very little came of the incident, though the two managers remained on the field longer than their teams in a mild-mannered discussion with a couple umpires. (Shildt, of course, managed the Cardinals for parts of four seasons before Oliver Marmol took over.)
Eventually, warnings were issued -- much to the dismay of Pivetta, who made his feelings known to crew chief Alfonso Márquez. He argued with the decision animatedly, but Shildt said he was informed by Márquez that the warnings were necessary after the benches cleared.
“It’s the [second] inning; nobody’s trying to hit anybody there,” Pivetta said. “We’re trying to play baseball.”
“I was moreso laughing, because I knew that nothing was going to come of it,” Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I think that's just what Willy does. He was just trying to get us going. It happened early, which was good. And we were rolling the rest of the game. I think we kind of got under Pivetta's skin, so that was good.”
Pivetta, who worked 6 1/3 innings of three-run ball, said he wasn’t affected by the warning. He continued to pitch up and in throughout the night, including a pitch that nearly caught Yohel Pozo later in the inning. Pozo then plated Contreras with an RBI groundout.
Contreras, meanwhile, had a big night at the plate, reaching base four times, with two hits, a walk and a hit-by-pitch.
The Padres and Cardinals are vying for the National League’s final Wild Card spot. San Diego holds that position, with St. Louis 1 1/2 games back, as one of a handful of teams in the chasing pack.
The two NL contenders are in the midst of a four-game series this weekend, with three more to come next weekend at Petco Park.