A few days ago, with the St. Louis Cardinals up big in the score, Albert Pujols pitched an inning.
It was a blowout, so manager Oliver Marmol decided to give the veteran first baseman, who is playing his last season of MLB baseball, a chance to step on the mound and throw some pitches.
He ended up allowing four earned runs in his inning of work: about as you would expect from a non-pitcher.
On Sunday, in another blowout (a 18-4 victory against the Pittsburgh Pirates), Marmol called catcher Yadier Molina, another Cardinals legend on the way out, to the mound.
The end result?
He allowed… four earned runs in an inning of work!
“Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols each has exactly a 36.00 ERA after they threw an inning apiece. In fairness, they both should get more mound time until the tie is broken,” MLB insider Jon Heyman tweeted, as a joke.
Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols each has exactly a 36.00 ERA after they threw an inning apiece. In fairness, they both should get more mound time until the tie is broken..
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) May 23, 2022
They Should Definitely Play The Tie-Breaker
Actually, it could be a nice tie-breaker for the next time the Cardinals are involved in a blowout.
Molina may say he has the edge because his performance included no walks, but four runs are four runs, and those are the same Pujols allowed.
The two players are, quite likely, the two most influential Cardinals of the last 20 years.
Pujols had a dream decade from 2001 to 2010, played in 2011 with St. Louis, won his second World Series championship (the first one came in 2006) and then departed to Los Angeles.
He signed as a free agent this year and is actually mashing, mostly against left-handed pitchers, with a .231/.333/.446 line and four home runs at 42 years old.
Molina, on the other hand, is hitting .239/.239/.337 with a couple of home runs.
St. Louis is lucky to have them as living legends.
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