Atlanta Braves: Tyler Flowers and Wilson Contreras beef explained

A couple of veteran catchers got into it on Monday night as the Atlanta Braves and Chicago Cubs kicked off a four-game series.

There was a lot of reaction on Twitter Monday night after Wilson Contreras went after Tyler Flowers and the Atlanta Braves.

But before making any judgment, it’s best to have all of the information available.

Certainly, during the game, it looked like Contreras was being a clown, and I still believe he was, but after hearing the postgame interviews I at least understand what set him off.

If you go back and watch the pitch before the Contreras home run he took exception with the strike call, which looked to be a little below the strike zone.

Contreras had a conversation with the umpire, and while I don’t see Flowers chirping in, he does kind of laugh/smile.

Apparently, this rubbed Contreras the wrong way, and that’s why he yelled at Flowers after hitting the ball — a ball that barely got over the fence.

Flowers essentially said the same thing.

Who is in the wrong here?

To be honest, both players are in the wrong.

When a batter is talking with the umpire about a strike call, it’s probably best that the catcher stay out of it. And even though we can’t tell for sure whether or not Flowers said something, he definitely made a reaction to the exchange.

At the same time, Contreras did a fantastic job stealing strikes for Jon Lester all night, so I don’t understand why he would have any beef with the umpire.

But that’s where the beef should have ended. A normal person would have brushed off the Flowers ‘mock smile’ and went about his business.

But Contreras is a known hothead and decided to escalate things.

If you want to say something to Flowers about butting in on his conversation with the umpire, fine, I get that. But then to yell at the rest of the Atlanta Braves team as you round the bases, that is what made this a clown move in my books.

And then when he got home plate he’s going to scream at Flowers as he runs away to the dugout and hides behind his teammates. That’s a coward move in my opinion.

He had a reason to be upset and confront Flowers about it, but the way he handled it was childish.

Now we have three more games that will be very uncomfortable, and pitchers will have to be careful when pitching inside.

I believe the Atlanta Braves put this matter behind them and I don’t expect any retaliation. If they were going to retaliate, they had the best opportunity last night when he came up with first base open and the game pretty much out of reach.

One thing that is certain, Wilson Contreras won game one of this series. He set the tone, got in the head of Julio Teheran and Flowers, and the Atlanta Braves never responded.

Hopefully this doesn’t linger into the rest of the series and the Atlanta Braves can get back to just playing great baseball as they have been all month.