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Cubs’ Daniel Palencia secures save after exchange of words with Cardinals’ Willson Contreras

ST. LOUIS — Plate umpire Quinn Wolcott punched the air to call the last out, and Cubs closer Daniel Palencia balled his hands into fists and shouted in celebration. He pounded his chest and spun around, facing up the first-base line as he shouted again.

For a moment, the tensions that had flared earlier in the inning, when Palencia hit Cardinals first baseman Willson Contreras in the hand, threatened to boil over with an exchange of words. But the swarms of players leaving both dugouts didn’t converge. And the blue jerseys formed a handshake line to celebrate the Cubs’ 3-0 victory Thursday in the series finale at Busch Stadium.

“I was just excited,” Palencia said after striking out three consecutive batters with runners on first and second to earn the save. “This is my job. . . . Just the moment of the game.”

Contreras told local reporters: “The only thing I didn’t appreciate was the way he turned around. But, once again, I think it’s just the heat of the game. He came out with good stuff, put another zero on the board, and they won today.”

The fastball off Contreras’ hand carried the extra weight of deja vu for the former Cub. Just last August, he landed on the injured list with a broken finger after being hit by Twins pitcher Pablo Lopez — another blow to a season that already had been shortened by a fractured forearm.

So when Palencia threw a 100.5 mph fastball by Contreras’ chin, and the pitch glanced off his hand as he dove out of the way, he shouted toward the mound.

“Last year, I got two broken bones,” Contreras told reporters. “And nobody’s trying to hit anybody there. I know I reacted the way I reacted. Nobody wants a fastball right at your face. I know he’s not trying to. I just said, ‘Throw strikes.’ My reaction was bad; I take that back. I apologize to the Chicago Cubs for reacting the way I reacted. But I’m not trying to get another broken bone.”

Palencia emphasized that the hit-by-pitch wasn’t intentional.

“I don’t want to hit that guy,” he said. “I’ve been watching him since I was a kid. I’m proud of him, what he’s doing for the game. Like I said, the moment was intense, close game.”

Contreras, 33, and Palencia, 25, grew up in Venezuela. And though they never played together in the Cubs’ organization, they overlapped in spring training of 2022, months after the team acquired Palencia from the Athletics in a trade-deadline deal for Andrew Chafin.

“He’s Venezuelan, too, you know?” Palencia said. “I don’t want to hit that guy. I don’t want to hit any guy in this game. I just want to do my job.”

Palencia didn’t let Alec Burleson’s leadoff double or the back-and-forth with Contreras knock him off course. He struck out Nolan Arenado, Thomas Saggese and Nolan Gorman.

“You come in with a lead, the other team gets a rally, then the emotion of the stadium starts to go up,” manager Craig Counsell said. “And if everything starts to go up, you have to control it and make pitches. And that’s where Danny’s taken a huge step forward this year. You succeed in moments like that, where that very thing happens. That’s what the ninth inning is about.”

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