St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Willson Contreras was ejected after a strikeout in the seventh inning of Monday's series opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He claims he was ejected after he told the home-plate umpire to "call those pitches both sides.

Contreras, 33, entered Monday hitting .261/.345/.460 (125 OPS+) with 19 home runs and 70 runs batted in over the course of 120 games. His contributions were estimated to have been worth 2.3 Wins Above Replacement, according to the calculations hosted at Baseball Reference.

Cardinals first baseman Willson Contreras threw a bat that mistakenly hit his own coach and tossed bubble gum on the field after he was ejected in St.