This has been a trying week for all of the Red Sox’s Venezuelan players, who have been deeply affected by the earthquakes that devastated the northern part of the country last Wednesday and which have killed more than 1,700 people.

So when Willson Contreras uncorked a massive three-run home run in the first inning of Monday’s 6-3 Red Sox win over the Washington Nationals, all of that emotion came pouring out. The first baseman tossed his bat and shouted “Venezuela!” to his teammates before holding back tears upon his return to the dugout.

Following the game Contreras said he felt like in that moment a prayer had been answered.

“I feel like I could be there helping people, and I can’t do that, and the homer just represents something I prayed to God for it to happen,” Contreras said. “Because that’s the only thing I can do for Venezuela right now physically.”

During the course of his celebration, Contreras flipped his bat high in the air and spent several moments shouting to the dugout before beginning his home run trot. Contreras made a point to apologize to the Nationals and starting pitcher Miles Mikolas, saying he didn’t mean any disrespect.

“That was part of me thinking of my country,” Contreras said. “Thinking of so many kids that have died, so many people that have died, and it’s not easy to be dealing with.”

Since the earthquakes struck Contreras has scrubbed his social media accounts of personal content to instead solicit and coordinate humanitarian aid donations. He and his fellow Venezuelan teammates, including Wilyer Abreu, Ranger Suarez, Carlos Narvaez and Andruw Monasterio, have also helped raise money for Venezuela outside the ballpark prior to first pitch over the past few games.

Abreu, who gave Contreras a prolonged hug after the homer, said it was tough to see him in such an emotional state but they all have each other’s backs.

“We’re in this together,” Abreu said. “We’re trying to support each other because there’s a lot going on back in Venezuela so we’re trying to stay focused and try to stay in the game as much as we can.”

“It’s very emotional, we all want to be there supporting our families and we want to make a bigger contribution,” Suarez said via interpreter Carlos Villoria Benítez. “It’s the same for all of us, for Wilyer, for Willson, for Mony, for Narvy, so at the end of the day I think we want to be there trying to help more, but we can’t.”

Contreras said beyond the tragedy itself and wanting to do more to help, he’s especially frustrated by the Venezuelan government’s response, saying the authorities have blocked humanitarian aid and detained people who are trying to help. He noted that Venezuela experienced a devastating natural disaster not too long ago with the 1999 mudslides, and since then the country has faced one crisis after another.

“I don’t think we deserve all of this, but we are good people,” Contreras said. “We’re a good country, we are good people trying to have a better life, and we’re not even close to that as a country.”

Even though he’d like to do more, one thing he can do is perform on the baseball field, so Contreras said from here on out everything he does will be for his home country.

“It’s for Venezuela,” Contreras said. “Of course I’m helping the team to win and it’s good, but I think every homer from now on is going to be for the Red Sox and Venezuela.”