Cards' Contreras rips into Brewers player after collision, verbal spat

There doesn't appear to be any love lost between Willson Contreras and the Milwaukee Brewers.

The St. Louis Cardinals first baseman exchanged words with the Brewers after he was involved in a third-inning collision with Caleb Durbin while fielding his position. Rhys Hoskins appeared to be leading the chirping from Milwaukee's dugout.

(Video source: MLB.com)

Contreras' anger seemed to boil over postgame, as he ripped into a member of the Brewers - who he refused to name - for seemingly not backing up his words once they were later face-to-face on the field.

"One of their players likes to talk from far away, but when he got to my face, he didn't say s--t," Contreras said after St. Louis' 8-5 win, according to Katie Woo of The Athletic. "I was looking for more than that. He seems to be tough, but he's a f-----g p---y. I'm not going to name names. He knows who he is."

When asked about Hoskins specifically, Contreras claimed to be upset that his Brewers counterpart stayed silent once the two of them were side-by-side at first later in the game.

"He didn't say nothing to me," Contreras said. "I was expecting for him to say something, but he was looking away already. Look at my face - just say it to my face, whatever you say from the dugout. He was looking away and said, 'Get off the base.' I said, 'Push me,' and he didn't. So, it was good."

Hoskins was hit in the hand by an Andre Pallante pitch in the fourth inning. He remained in the game but did not appear to say anything to Contreras after taking first base.

In the fifth, Contreras was plunked by Jose Quintana, leading to warnings being issued despite the slugger's seemingly playful reaction. Quintana said postgame that no intent was behind the pitch, according to Hunter Baumgardt of 97.3 The Game MKE. Contreras then appeared to be saying something after arriving at first base, although it was unclear who he was talking to.

Contreras extended St. Louis' lead with a ninth-inning home run, and took a long look back at the Brewers' dugout after rounding first base.

Hoskins, for his part, wouldn't detail what he and Contreras were talking about after the collision.

"We were just talking about playing first base," Hoskins said, according to Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Hoskins said he did not think the Cardinals hit him intentionally in the fourth. When asked if the Brewers had a problem with Contreras for colliding with Durbin, he took a long pause before replying: "I think that was obvious."

With the win, the Cardinals moved within a half-game of the second-place Brewers in the NL Central.

St. Louis and Milwaukee will finish their series Sunday afternoon in what will mark their last meeting until Sept. 12. However, the division rivals will be around each other for a few more days after this series. In a bizarre quirk, both teams will be staying at the same Chicago hotel for three nights next week when the Cardinals visit the White Sox at Rate Field and the Brewers play the Cubs at Wrigley Field, according to John Denton of MLB.com.