There was drama at Fenway Park on Tuesday after a Washington Nationals pitcher jawed at Boston Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras, calling him “boy.”

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Cade Cavalli struck out Contreras looking on a 3-2 pitch. Contreras took a couple of steps toward the Red Sox dugout on the first base side, but suddenly turned to Cavalli after the pitcher, a white man from Oklahoma, was heard yelling at Contreras, a Venezuelan immigrant, “Sit down, boy!”

Historically, ‘boy’ has been used as an epithet by white people against Black men. Contreras is not Black, but is nonetheless a person of color.

Contreras then slowly made his way toward Cavalli as the benches and the bullpens emptied. Some of the players were pushing and shoving during the brouhaha, with Contreras throwing his helmet at Cavalli or one of the other Nationals players.

New England Sports Network broadcasters Dave O’Brien and Will Middlebrooks noted what Cavalli had shouted at Contreras, and Middlebrooks suggested that someone on the Nationals may have made an additional comment to Contreras that set him off.

It was the second night in a row in which Contreras had been ejected.

“He was just seeing red at that point,” Middlebrooks said before breaking down a slow-motion replay of the incident while O’Brien called Cavalli’s remarks “classless.” Middlebrooks noted that Contreras has been emotional amid the ongoing search and rescue efforts in his native Venezuela after a devastating earthquake:

MIDDLEBROOKS: He said it and stared at him, kinda caught Contreras off guard after getting frozen by the breaking ball. And he’s just saying like, “Why are you yelling at me? What’s going on?” And then I don’t know what else was said right here, because that’s when he snapped.

O’BRIEN: Well, Cavalli going out of his way to antagonize him after the strikeout. I don’t know any player that isn’t going to react to that.

MIDDLEBROOKS: Well, they know he’s emotionally on edge right now with everything that is going on in Venezuela. He’s been vocal and very emotional since all that has gone down, but–

O’BRIEN: Well, it’s a classless thing to say.

MIDDLEBROOKS: In no way am I justifying what has happened with Contreras.

O’BRIEN: Sure.

MIDDLEBROOKS: You could take exception to him talking to you like that, because him being like, “Who are you? Why are you talking to me like that?” But whatever was said after that escalated things.

Middlebrooks speculated that given Contreras’s history of ejections, the Nationals may have been deliberately antagonizing him.

Watch above via New England Sports Network.

The post Brawl Breaks Out at Fenway After White Pitcher Tells Venezuelan Batter, ‘Sit Down, Boy!’ first appeared on Mediaite.