Washington Nationals pitcher Cade Cavalli took ownership Wednesday for a bench-clearing altercation the previous night, admitting that he had called Boston’s Willson Contreras “boy.”

Addressing reporters Wednesday morning, Cavalli noted the loaded “history” of the term, which has roots among Southerners who used it to demean Black Americans, said he had “learned a lot” about that history and insisted it would “never happen again.”

“I’m extremely torn up about the way that things were perceived,” Cavalli said. “Obviously, there was no ill intention behind that. It hurt my heart, knowing that, if there’s a 13-year-old black kid in D.C. that sees that — that looked up to me and thinks that he perceived it in a way that wasn’t intended the way that it came out, and then he’s not looking up to me anymore. That hurts my heart.”

Cavalli’s comment was audible on the Nationals broadcast after he struck Contreras out in the fourth inning.

Cade Cavalli will not face discipline from the team, according to The Athletic, though he told media he hoped Contreras would see his comments.

While Cavalli reportedly did not reveal his use of the word in initial postgame comments on Tuesday, both Contreras and Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy said it was clear what Cavalli had said, and indicated the blame for the altercation laid at Cavalli’s feet.

In an interview on the Nationals’ broadcast postgame, Cavalli claimed, “I didn’t say anything.”

In his comments, Cade Cavalli elaborated on his ignorance about the term.

“There’s a history behind that word, and that’s just something that as a competitor, like in football or basketball, playing Wiffle ball with my brother, you don’t understand it,” he said. “And then it gets perceived in a way that was not my intention, and then you learn from that. It’ll never happen again.”

Though it is regretful that Cavalli’s language resulted in an on-field fight and multiple ejections, his and the Nationals’ response was about as full-throated and humble an apology as you will get in pro sports over a sensitive issue like race.

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