Friday night against the Dodgers turned scary fast for Willson Contreras. In the 3rd inning, Dodgers reliever Will Klein sailed a first pitch up and in, forcing Contreras to hit the deck to avoid it. The very next pitch, a 95 mph fastball, caught him on the side of the helmet near the ear flap.
The clip shows Contreras bailing out of the box on one high-and-tight fastball before getting clipped in the head by the next pitch, then being checked on by the training staff.
Contreras stayed in long enough to run the bases for himself after taking first, which is honestly the wildest part of the whole sequence. But once the Red Sox took the field for the bottom of the inning, he was done for the night, pulled for precautionary reasons rather than staying out there and risking a bigger problem.
Interim manager Chad Tracy addressed it postgame, saying Contreras "got hit in the ear flap, so I think his ear was ringing a little bit," and that early tests had come back fine. Still, the team put him through concussion protocol and said they'd check on him again the next morning before making any further call on his status. That's the responsible move with any blow to the head, even one that looks survivable in the moment.
This wasn't some fluke first-time incident for Contreras either. He's been a magnet for pitches all year, and getting hit near the head is the nightmare scenario every catcher-turned-first-baseman thinks about after years of foul tips and inside heat. The good news buried in a scary clip: Boston still walked away with a 9-4 win over the Dodgers, so at least the moment didn't wreck the game on the scoreboard, just the vibes.
Now it's a wait-and-see situation. If Contreras clears protocol he could be back in the lineup within days, but any head injury for a guy his age comes with real caution, and fantasy managers leaning on his bat should keep one eye on the Red Sox injury report before locking him into a lineup this weekend.