Yadier Molina may be well past his prime, but he’s still a viable catcher and continues to get the job done for the St. Louis Cardinals.
Sunday night at Wrigley Field was no exception.
After catching seven innings of two-run ball from Adam Wainwright, he caught four innings from reliever Genesis Cabrera as the Cards rallied from a late deficit to win 5-3 in 11 innings and take the series from the Chicago Cubs.
With one out and a runner on third in the bottom half of the 11th, Cabrera lost control of a pitch and it almost hit Jason Heyward in the head, but Molina stretched out, reaching over Heyward’s head to catch the wayward pitch.
Codify Baseball tweeted a video of Molina’s play, highlighting the extreme athleticism of one of the best catchers to ever play the game.
This Yadi Molina catch yesterday was one of the craziest things I've seen. Impressive even in slo mo. pic.twitter.com/B0UaqFiPEm
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) June 6, 2022
Yadi Strikes Again
This is an unbelievable play by Molina.
Heyward barely ducked out of the way, but if Molina doesn’t catch that, the runner on third scores and makes it a 5-4 game.
Even at 39, Molina still manages to get the job done.
What gets swept under the rug at times is his sheer athleticism.
This guy is pushing 40 and still making unbelievable plays.
Above all, he’s a smart player.
He knows how to compete and has such an affinity for the game of baseball.
It’s second nature to him and it should never be a surprise to see him continue to shut down the running game and make some crazy plays.
The fact that he was crouched and had to stretch that far to catch that pitch is impressive.
But rarely does anything get by Molina.
He’ll always find a way to put his baseball knowledge to work in key situations.
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