Cade Cavalli, Willson Contreras among four suspended for Red Sox-Nats brawl

Major League Baseball announced four suspensions on Thursday for a bench-clearing incident that took place between the Boston Red Sox and Washington Nationals earlier this week.

The brawl began when Nationals pitcher Cade Cavalli struck out Boston's Wilson Contreras, and could be heard on the microphone telling him to "sit down, boy." 

That resulted in Contreras walking toward the mound, with tempers boiling over. Contreras charged Cavalli and threw his helmet at him to really get things going, 

Both players were among four suspended for the incident.

Cade Cavalli, Wilson Contreras among four suspended in Nationals-Red Sox brawl

The league announced on Thursday that Cavalli and Contreras both received seven-game suspensions, while Washington pitcher Miles Mikolas received a five-game suspension. Boston outfielder Nate Eaton was also suspended three games.

The suspensions are set to begin on Friday unless any of the players decide to appeal. 

Even though Cavalli and Mikolas are suspended for seven-and five-games respectively, that basically amounts to one start given their role as starting pitchers.

The Contreras and Eaton suspensions are far more impactful from the Boston side. 

Cavalli addressed the situation the next day and said he was "torn up" at the way his comments were perceived and could be perceived, and swore something like that would never happen again.

Nationals president of baseball operations Paul Toboni said he and manager Blake Butera spoke with Cavalli about the way referring to a player as "boy" could be perceived, and the history of the word in a negative context toward minorities.

From MLB.com:

“As you can probably imagine, he's pretty beat up right now,” Toboni said. “He had a tough time going to sleep last night, and I think largely because of the feedback that he was receiving regarding his choice of words last night. What we talked a lot about was, we within the Nationals organization have a really good understanding of who Cade is as a person. That doesn't go for everyone else. Cade is a guy of great values, great morals, [a] great leader. At the same time, his choice of words was not ideal.

“Candidly, I think he was unaware that it might have or induce a negative reaction from folks. But we talked a lot about that, and I think now he understands it. I think it's something that in the past, he's used in the spirit of competition with his brother, with his dad, whoever it might be. But Cade being the guy that he is, now understands how it might not be received that way from other folks.

“So moving forward, it's something that he's committed to eliminating from his vocabulary because he understands it now.”

Cavalli's choice of words and attempt at trash talk toward Contreras was clearly what instigated the altercation, but Contreras is likely getting hit harder for being the one that actually charged at the mound and for physically throwing his helmet. 

The league's official announcement made no specific descriptions for what actions actually brought on the suspensions, other than to say for their "actions" in the brawl.