Willson Contreras on Madison Bumgarner incident: ‘I got in his mind’

Madison Bumgarner’s rough 2023 continued Wednesday, as the veteran left-hander gave up seven runs to the St. Louis Cardinals — but not before the Arizona Diamondbacks hurler got into a trademark spat with the Cardinals’ Willson Contreras at the beginning of the third inning.

Bumgarner took issue with Contreras yelling in frustration after the St. Louis catcher fouled off a pitch, shouting expletives at Contreras, who turned in bewilderment and gestured at Bumgarner as Diamondbacks catcher José Herrera stepped in front of him to defuse the situation.

Tempers flare in St. Louis

Tempers flared in St. Louis between Madison Bumgarner and Willson Contreras.

Contreras eventually worked a leadoff walk and then flipped his bat while trotting to first base as Bumgarner glared at him. Bumgarner ended up allowing four runs to the Cardinals in the third inning, his final frame of work, capped off by a three-run home run from Tommy Edman. St. Louis would go on to beat Arizona 14-5 in blowout fashion.

After the game, Contreras compared the back-and-forth to “mind games” and believes that the exchange had an effect on Bumgarner’s poor performance later in the inning.

“I think he didn’t like the way I swung at the fastball,” Contreras said. “I never looked back at him or anything like that. When I turned around, I knew he was saying something to me. If he’s getting mad about that, what can I say?

“It’s part of the game. If he says something to me, I’ll say something back. For me, it’s like mind games right there. Thankfully I got in his mind and he blew out in that inning.”

Bumgarner has a long history of getting into verbal spats with players who he believes are being disrespectful. During his many years as the San Francisco Giants’ ace, Bumgarner frequently feuded with Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig, who would often violate the “unwritten rules” of stoic conduct on the baseball field that Bumgarner swears by.

He also got in a memorable shouting match with Dodgers infielder Max Muncy in 2019 when he felt Muncy was admiring a home run for too long, to which Muncy responded by telling Bumgarner to go get the ball out of “the ocean” beyond the right-field wall in San Francisco’s Oracle Park.

More recently, Bumgarner called Washington Nationals outfielder Victor Robles a “clown” after Robles admired a home run of his own during a 2022 game.

So fans can now add Willson Contreras to the list of opposing hitters Madison Bumgarner has issues with. It’s a list that may not have much more opportunity to lengthen. Bumgarner’s outing Wednesday raised his 2023 ERA to 10.26 as calls from Diamondbacks fans for the team to demote or cut the 2014 World Series MVP have continued to grow.

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