BOSTON — The Boston Red Sox entered Tuesday night’s game against the Washington Nationals on a 12-game streak of consecutive quality starts (the club’s second-longest since the Live Ball Era began in 1920), a season-high five-game winning streak, and a one-game streak of Willson Contreras ejections.

Only the last one was extended in what turned out to be an ugly, chaotic and concerning 8-1 loss in which nearly everything that could go wrong for the Red Sox did.

Contreras, interim manager Chad Tracy, outfielder Nate Eaton and Nationals pitcher Miles Mikolas, who started Monday night, were all ejected after an all-out, benches- and bullpens-clearing brawl in the bottom of the fourth.

Left-hander Connelly Early did not return for the top of the fifth inning, despite a pitch count of 61 (38 for strikes) and no runs allowed over four frames. He gave up three hits, walked two and struck out five.

As the top of the sixth ended, the Red Sox announced the rookie starter exited due to “left elbow discomfort.”

And after taking a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first, Boston failed to put a man on base again until the eighth. If not for a leadoff double by Anthony Seigler and two-out error by third baseman Curtis Mead, which allowed Contreras to reach first base and Seigler to score, Nationals starter Cade Cavalli might have bid for perfection. After Seigler’s two-bagger, Cavalli retired 21 of the next 22 Red Sox batters, with Contreras’ reach-on-error the exception.

Cavalli struck out a new career-high 13 batters over seven innings of one-hit, zero-walk ball. He threw 100 pitches, 73 for strikes.

The brawl with Contreras, which took place with two outs in the fourth, did not unseat Cavalli. It did, however, unravel the Red Sox. Nationals hitters tallied 12 hits, and tied the game in the top of the sixth. Left-fielder Daylen Lile greeted Danny Coulombe with a first-pitch single and catcher Keibert Ruiz drew a one-out walk. Designated hitter James Wood, and the relay from Wilyer Abreu to shortstop Tsung-Che Cheng to third baseman Caleb Durbin was in time to tag Ruiz out at the hot corner, but Lile scored the tying run. Greg Weissert finished the frame with a strikeout of Luis García Jr.

With Weissert back out for the top of the seventh, Washington took their first lead since the first inning of the previous night’s game. Pinch-hitter José Tena led off with a single, advanced to second when Weissert issued a one-out walk to Nasim Nuñez.

Righty Justin Slaten took over, only to be met with the same kind of aggressive approach Lile took against Coulombe in the previous inning; a first-pitch single by Ruiz scored the go-ahead run. Left-fielder Jarren Duran leapt high and against the Monster trying to catch García’s fly ball, but it was out of his reach. Two runs scored, and Duran appeared to be in pain following his collision with the Monster but remained in the game.

Tommy Kahnle met the same fate in the top of the eighth, when CJ Abrams turned his second pitch, an 88.7 mph change-up, into a 402-foot home run to right-center.

The Nats, and hits, just kept coming. Kahnle walked Tena, gave up a single to Lile, and Nuñez reached on a fielder’s choice out. Back-to-back doubles by Ruiz and Wood plated a combined three runs.

Romy Gonzalez and Durbin became Boston’s first baserunners since the first inning when they greeted Nationals reliever Orlando Ribalta with back-to-back singles to lead off the eighth, but the first signs of offensive life were immediately extinguished by Carlos Narváez grounding into a double play and Cheng flying out to right.

By the time rookie Ryan Watson became the first Red Sox reliever to pitch a clean inning with a 1-2-3 ninth, it was too late. Zak Kent worked around Abreu’s two-out single to close out the home team.

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