Sobering news: Yadier Molina to remain on playoff roster
SAN FRANCISCO -- The St. Louis Cardinals, whose season appeared to be on the brink just 24 hours earlier, joked and laughed throughout their workout Monday afternoon at AT&T Park, looking as if they didn't have a care in the world.
While the rest of the free world may be counting them out, believing they've got no prayer against the San Francisco Giants without Gold Glove catcher Yadier Molina, the Cardinals have some sobering news for their detractors.
Molina isn't done.
And neither are the Cardinals.
Molina stunned everyone by waking up in his hotel room feeling surprisingly good after straining his left oblique muscle Sunday night, a pain that he described as the worst he's ever endured. It felt like someone stabbed him in the side. He came to the ballpark, played catch and threw with little discomfort, convincing the Cardinals to keep him on their postseason roster.
"Definitely, you feel something,'' says Molina, who was out three weeks in the spring of 2011 with a similar injury, "but I feel good enough to catch. Right now, you've got to go and give it everything you can. You got to do it for your team and yourself. You can't think about anything else.
"When I get a chance to play, I won't be thinking about my side. I'm going to be thinking about winning the game.''
Sure, you're not going to see Molina in the starting lineup for Game 3 Tuesday (4:07 ET) at AT&T Park, and perhaps he won't start the rest of the National League Championship Series, but the Cardinals aren't about to pull him off the roster.
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Cardinals lineup:
- 3B Carpenter
- CF Jay
- LF Holliday
- 1B Adams
- SS Peralta
- 2B Wong
- C Pierzynski
- RF Grichuk
- P Lackey
Giants lineup:
- CF Blanco
- 2B Panik
- C Posey
- 3B Sandoval
- RF Pence
- 1B Belt
- LF Ishikawa
- SS Crawford
- P Hudson
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Molina, a six-time Gold Glove winner, didn't try to hit, and perhaps won't even pick up a bat for awhile, but he can still catch. Really, as long as the dude can walk, the Cardinals will keep him on their roster. If they replaced him now, he would be automatically ineligible for the World Series.
And, yes, you ask the Cardinals, and they're planning on being back in the World Series beginning next week for the third time in four years.
"I think it's hard for them not to hear what's being said nationally,'' Matheny says, "about this is one guy that our club can't do without. I think that actually gives them a little spur. That insults the rest of the guys in that room to say they are not good enough to do it.
"It's a great compliment to Yadi, as everybody knows how valuable he is and how much we appreciate what he does.
"But we do believe the fact that the other guys can step in and pick up the slack, especially when you're talking the short period of time here that we just need to figure out how to get it done.''
The Cardinals, tied with the San Francisco Giants 1-1 in the best-of-seven NLCS, are treating Molina's strained oblique muscle with all of the anxiety of their batboy coming down with a cold.
The numbers will reveal that Molina is as valuable to his team as any player in baseball. The Cardinals were 60-46 with a 3.19 ERA with Molina in the lineup this year, compared to 30-26 with a 4.07 ERA without him.
Yet, you walk about the Cardinals clubhouse, and they treat it almost as if it were a statistical aberration.
"It's a big loss, and we're going to miss Yadi, but it's not what you think,'' reliever Pat Neshek says. "When you have Cruzer out there, that's Yadi's protégé. He calls a great game. It's really not going to affect any of our pitchers.
"That's Yadi Jr. out there calling the game.''
That would be Tony Cruz, a backup catcher during his four-year career, never playing more than 51 games in any season. He has been with the Cardinals during the last four postseasons, but until this October, had just two plate appearances.
Now, after Molina's injury in the sixth inning in Game 2, he has four at-bats without a hit. In fact, he has one more passed ball than total hits.
Still, even if Molina can be used only as a defensive replacement the rest of the series, coming into games late as if he were a .190-hitting speedy outfielder, the Cardinals insist they'll be just fine with Cruz and veteran A.J. Pierzynski.
Pierzynski, who has 30 games of playoff experience and was just added to the roster for this series, will start Tuesday and catch Cardinals starter John Lackey, his former teammate in Boston.
Pierzynski was the Cardinals' primary catcher when Molina missed 40 games in July and August with a torn thumb ligament; they had a 20-20 record while Molina was out.
"We brought A.J. over here for a reason to help us out in a very similar situation,'' Matheny says. "I know he's looking forward to his warm reception in San Francisco.''
Pierzynski, who played just one season in San Francisco, which just so happened to be his worst year in 2004, was vilified by the Giants fans. It's been 10 years, but they haven't forgotten, with Pierzynski recalling fans yelling obscenities at him while working as a TV analyst during the 2012 World Series.
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Now, it's his turn for payback.
"Nobody going to feel sorry for us because somebody got hurt,'' he says. "The biggest thing is this team still believes it can win this series. Cruz has played in the postseason. I have played in a bunch of postseason games. So it's not like we're guys who have never done it before.
"We're both confident we can go out there, and maybe not be Yadi, but hopefully, fill in well enough to win games.''
Lackey, of course, has history with the Giants, too.
He pitched against them three times in the 2002 World Series, and was the winning pitcher in Game 7, leading the Los Angeles Angels to their only title.
There is no Giants player remaining from that team, and thankfully, Lackey says, the big guy who he intentionally walked four times, is gone too.
"No offense to anybody in that lineup,'' Lackey says, "but they don't got Barry Bonds.''
And suddenly, almost miraculously, the Cardinals have Molina back, even if it's in a limited role.
"We'll take him in any capacity,'' Matheny says, "even if it's a cheerleader on the bench. But to have him active, and as a weapon to be brought in late in the game, that is very valuable to us.''
Yes, the Cardinals suddenly are very much alive.
"We're not dead yet,'' Pierzynski says.
Maybe, they're just getting started.