May 9—CHICAGO — Although he began the process of moving on from Chicago late last season, Willson Contreras left one of his cars behind in the Windy City, so he could drive himself in luxury Monday to a reunion at Wrigley Field. He knew the route.

What he did not know was the welcome he would receive.

Would there be the cheers and the ovation for a returning favorite, a forever champion who brought the North Side its first World Series championship in the lifespan of a giant tortoise? Would there be boos for a former catcher who exchanged his beloved blue for the dreaded red of an archrival? Contreras was not sure, said he was a little “nervous” to find out, and had no idea how he would react.

And then he dropped his bat and started running to first.

His arms raised. His hands motioned. Bring it on, they said. Bathe him in boos. “OK, you’re going — there is love, and there are boos. I still feel like this place was mine, like mine, and I’m going to be remembered for a long time,” Contreras said, adding about the gesture: “It was spontaneous. I found myself doing it, and I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to keep doing it.’” Doing it he did. He did it at first base in the second inning as his leadoff single to center started the rally that became the Cardinals’ first run. He did it again in the sixth inning as his rocket- launch double off the ivy in center field snapped a tie game and sent the Cardinals toward a 3-1 victory Monday night against the Cubs. And he would have done it again in the eighth during his RBI groundout, but he had no time for such theatrics as he outran a double play to get his second RBI of the evening.

Back at Wrigley for the first time since he was a Cub, Contreras was involved in all three of the Cardinals’ runs as he turned an emotionally exhausting weekend into an emphatic return that left little doubt which side of the baseball’s oldest unmoved rivalry he stood.

“You’re not a Cardinal until you get booed and yelled at at Wrigley,” starter Miles Mikolas said. “Now, he’s one of us.”

That was the sensation Contreras felt after meetings with teammates Sunday and ongoing conversations Monday. He said multiple times that Adam Wainwright “embraced” him as a teammate. During a conversation, Wainwright and Jack Flaherty stressed to him that “we are all together, we’re losing together, and we will be winning together,” Contreras said. He had felt the weight of the team and its struggles during an eight-game losing streak and 10-24 start to the season, and then came the team’s handling of his shift from catcher to designated hitter.

All of that swallowed him in the sixth inning Sunday as the Cardinals had lost a lead spectacularly and there he was with a chance to change it.

He struck out. Before teammate Brendan Donovan hit a three-run homer to flip Sunday’s game, Contreras let loose all of his frustrations out of sight but not of out of earshot of the Cardinals’ dugout. He smashed what he could. He broke two bats.

“I didn’t have a clear mind,” Contreras described late Monday night in the visitors’ clubhouse at Wrigley Field. “I didn’t have a clear mind. I didn’t know what was going on with everything. I’ve been having long days. I have. I did that and then, OK, it’s over. The team needs me. The guys need me.”

The guys got him Monday. An element of the internal discussions the Cardinals had about shifting Contreras’ immediate playing time from catcher to designated hitter was lifting one burden from his game to see if the other flourished. It was not the driving factor, but it was a benefit the Cardinals saw — if taking away the stress and frustration Contreras felt directing games at catcher would jolt him offensively. Simply, if they put him in a position to hit and only hit, would he? Would taking off the mask for a few weeks reveal the bat? Because, they sure could use the offense.

With one of the bats he did not break, Contreras singled in the second inning. He finished the evening two-forfour with two RBIs and the first Cardinals’ run scored. The game was Contreras’ 12th multi-hit game of the season. His — well — enthusiasm for the game could be measured in miles per hour. Contreras’ single left his bat at 103 mph. The double that decided the game left his bat at 108 mph. And each was far slower than the groundball that Dansby Swanson snagged in the fourth for an exceptional groundout. That left Contreras’ unbroken bat at 117 mph, the fastest exit velocity he’d had in the past seven years.

“Some people embrace moments like this, and some people run away from them,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “Willy is definitely one who embraces it, runs toward it. That was fun to watch. Some players like putting on a show.”

Contreras reached base enough after the groundout to rib Swanson.

“Bro, you cannot catch that,” he said. “C’mon.”

Quicker than the fans at Wrigley cheered their Connor Bedard future — the Blackhawks’ lottery win for the Canadian wunderkind was announced on the scoreboard — they jeered their Willson Contreras past. As he approached the plate for his second at-bat, Contreras was booed. That continued in the fourth inning and in the sixth, and it reached crescendo as he doubled in and stood on second base — mustard yellow batting gloves, arms raised in a V.

He beckoned them to boo again.

At least one teammate, a reliever, approached him after the game in the clubhouse just to say how much he appreciated Contreras inviting the crowd to boo him.

“I love it. I love the intensity and the attitude,” Mikolas said. “You see him get so frustrated when he doesn’t come through for us. He wants to win so bad. His desire to win is so great (that) I think that’s what’s rubbing off on people. That desire. That urge. That fire to win. Once everyone on the team catches it we’re going to be dangerous.”

Said Contreras: “I wanted to do something to help the team and keep them awake. Yes, I play with an edge. Sometimes too much, which is fine. Sometimes I have showed it off a little bit more so we can get back on track. It’s something that is in my blood and won’t go away.”

Hours before first pitch, Contreras spoke for 17 minutes with reporters in the visitors’ dugout and fielded questions about his future as a catcher. The Cardinals reassigned him to designated hitter for the immediate future, though he revealed Monday that he was comfortable with the team’s plan to work him back toward the position he prefers, catcher. He was candid about his emotions, his initial frustration with the decision, and what it meant for teammates to talk to him during the 48 minutes.

Like the reporters asking for his expectations, he was curious about how the crowd at Wrigley Field would respond to his return.

It did not take long for him to find out.

And nine innings, roles in three runs, and a few hours later, Contreras was left with one final unknown as he asked what the route was for a visitor living Wrigley. Before he could drive his car into the Chicago night, he had to walk to the Cubs player gated parking paddock.

“I’m going to be nervous walking out there,” he said, smiling. “Because I parked in their parking lot.”