It was a rough Wednesday night for the St. Louis Cardinals, as they were blown out by the Tampa Bay Rays by a final of 11-3.
But because the game was so far out of reach, the Cardinals chose to give Yadier Molina another chance on the mound.
The 10-time All-Star pitched the ninth inning of the Cards’ game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on May 22.
He allowed four runs, but the Cardinals were so far ahead that it didn’t matter.
But while he was out there on the mound last night, Molina did the unthinkable and notched his first career strikeout on a 76-mph pitch.
Year 19 and Yadi just notched his first strikeout! pic.twitter.com/jWJXJpRtlt
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) June 9, 2022
Yadi Makes History
The Cardinals may have a couple of two-way players on their roster.
First it was Albert Pujols, now it’s Molina.
Molina even managed to throw a scoreless inning.
But how about this for an accomplishment?
We know Molina is one of the best pure hitters of this generation, as well as one of the better catchers.
But in his last year, we finally discovered that he could pitch a little too.
And in the bottom of the eighth, Molina picked up an important milestone.
And Pujols was loving every minute of it, as the camera panned over to him laughing and celebrating Molina’s accomplishment.
The Cardinals have made the most of their opportunities this year to use position players as pitchers.
Maybe soon, Pujols can rack up his first career strikeout, something that was missing when he took the mound against the San Francisco Giants.
But it’s got to be nice for Cardinals fans to know they have some options if they’re ever getting blown out and need a position player to save the bullpen a little.
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