MILWAUKEE -- William Contreras provided a couple of reporters with a status update on his fractured finger on Monday afternoon, which is to say he extended his left hand and let them have a look. The middle finger of that hand is a slightly more human shade of purple these days, but it’s still obvious from even a passing glance how badly it must hurt every time he catches one of Abner Uribe’s 100 mph turbo sinkers or, even worse, makes anything but perfectly square contact while swinging the bat.
Asked how he’s feeling, Contreras shrugged his shoulders. The reinforced catcher’s gloves and padded bat handles help a little, but not much.
He remains insistent on playing with pain, so he went and won the Brewers a ballgame, reaching safely five times with a walk and four hits including the two-out, eighth-inning RBI single that sent the Brewers to a 5-4 win over the Orioles at American Family Field.
“I’ve been working hard from last year,” Contreras said, referring to the origin of the injury, “and I don’t want to stop because of my finger. It feels better when you have another great day like today.”
Contreras said he’s found some practices that help manage pain and swelling, including alternating his finger between cold and hot water during the day. And he has been stacking great days for a while now, reaching safely 14 times in 21 plate appearances over his last five games.
But his finest performance of the year came Monday, when he matched his career high for hits, accounted for four of the 12 batted balls in play at 100 mph and above by both teams and spared the Brewers from what might have been a heartbreaker.
“It’s hard to hit a ball hard with that finger because there’s pain sometimes,” he said. “But I don’t have to think too much about my finger because I’m going to keep playing the rest of the season.”
Why is that so important to him?
“I don’t know, man. I always think about me in the offseason, I worked too hard to miss a day,” Contreras said. “I don’t want to take two, three months off. I’m just going to wait until October, November, December [to rest] and be ready for next season.”
The Brewers had a 4-1 lead going to the seventh inning only to see it get away from Quinn Priester, the “bulk” arm behind opener Rob Zastryzny, and Nick Mears, the righty reliever who has been the Brewers’ bullpen MVP so far this season. Mears served up Cedric Mullins’ game-tying three-run homer after Priester departed with a pair of runners on base.
In the eighth, the Brewers reclaimed the lead. Brice Turang worked a two-out walk from Orioles reliever Yennier Cano and stole second base, giving the Orioles the chance to walk Contreras and pitch to Jackson Chourio, who went 0-for-5 Monday and is mired in an 0-for-23 slump. After that was Christian Yelich, who has two hits in his last 25 at-bats.
“We thought about it,” said Orioles interim manager Tony Mansolino. “We didn’t want to put him on right there in that situation and risk the possibility of going down two [runs]. We also have a ton of faith in Yennier. We bet on our guy. It didn’t work out.”
Contreras grounded the go-ahead single up the middle for his fourth hit, tying the career high he matched twice last season, when he won his second straight Brewers MVP award and finished fifth in NL MVP balloting. Uribe and Trevor Megill (seventh save) combined to hold the lead -- with Contreras’ help, of course.
“That’s our guy right there,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “That’s the guy that, even though we catch him a ton, he’s really special. … He’s a tough kid.”
That toughness was on full display because twice on Monday, Contreras took foul tips off the pinky side of his catcher’s glove. Those are the worst of all, since he tucks his middle, ring and pinky fingers into that final pocket and when a batted ball hits the glove, it bends back all three digits.
When Orioles designated hitter Ryan O’Hearn hit a foul tip like that in the seventh inning, Contreras dropped his glove and drew a visit from a member of Milwaukee’s athletic training staff. But there’s nothing to be done. Contreras eventually put his glove back on his hand and looked skyward.
Asked what he said in that moment, Contreras answered, “I just say, ‘God.’”
“[The pain] is still there,” he said, “but I want to keep playing. I’m good.”