In the top of the 10th inning of the Tuesday evening game between the Chicago Cubs and Washington Nationals held at Nationals Park, Cubs catcher Willson Contreras delivered a sacrifice fly to hand the visitors what ultimately became a temporary lead. As Contreras walked back toward the dugout, he appeared to exchange some not-so-pleasant words with two individuals who were sporting Nationals jerseys:
After driving in the go-ahead run on a sac fly in the 10th, #Cubs catcher-of-the-future Willson Contreras gets into a pretty heated argument with a quickly ejected fan at Nationals Park.@Cubs #GoCubsGo @Nationals pic.twitter.com/ApbhIkmiCy
— Billy Krumb (@ClubhouseCancer) August 17, 2022
It's now known those two spectators will be watching the Nationals host opposing clubs from the comforts of their couches for the foreseeable future.
Per Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune, the two fans involved in the incident have now been banned from Nationals Park for five years. While video highlights only picked up one person being ejected from Tuesday's contest, a Nationals spokesperson confirmed that two individuals received the same punishment.
Contreras spoke with reporters after Tuesday's game but wouldn't divulge exactly what the person said to him in Spanish.
"If somebody tried to mess up my family, they’re going to (have to go through) me first. Whatever they said, it wasn’t healthy. It was not right," Contreras explained at the time.
"What he said got under my skin," Contreras continued during his comments. "We’re speaking the same language. I know what he means."
While fans who pay their money are allowed to boo and heckle players, to a point, at ballparks around the country, saying anything that could be considered a threat will almost always get a person ejected and banned from a venue. Whatever the fan in question said to Contreras, those could prove to be costly words if the person is a diehard supporter who routinely attended games at Nationals Park before Tuesday's developments.
Meanwhile, the Cubs defeated Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday.
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