June 3, 2004: Cardinals complete sweep of Pirates in Yadier Molina’s major-league debut

Two-time Gold Glove winner Mike Matheny began 2004 as the St. Louis Cardinals’ starting catcher,1 his role since the 2000 season. He started 42 of the Cardinals’ first 52 games in 2004 but strained a muscle in his right side on June 2 against the Pittsburgh Pirates.2 The Cardinals placed the 33-year-old Matheny on the 15-day disabled list the next day and called up 21-year-old Yadier Molina from Triple-A Memphis.

The youngest of three catching brothers from Puerto Rico (Bengie and José both caught for the Anaheim Angels in 2004), Molina was selected by St. Louis in the fourth round of the 2000 draft. One scouting report at that time described Molina’s skill set as: “defensive catcher, great arm, weak bat.”3

Molina entered 2004 rated by Baseball America as St. Louis’s number-4 prospect and viewed as the Cardinals’ catcher of the future. “I think at this point, he’s our top catching prospect,” said the club’s director of player development, Bruce Manno. “We feel that at some point, he’s going to make a major contribution to our club at the major league level.”4 Baseball America noted that Molina had demonstrated progress on offense by showing he could handle the bat well, but would likely never hit for much power.5

When Matheny was injured, general manager Walt Jocketty said there was little debate about calling Molina up. “He’s the right guy,” said Jocketty. “It’s a great opportunity for him and a great opportunity for us to see what he can do.”6 During his time in Memphis, Molina hit .310 with one homer and 14 RBIs and had thrown out 17 of 28 runners attempting to steal.7

Nearly a third of the way through the campaign, both the Cardinals and Pirates came into a four-game set at PNC Park hovering around .500. After trading away third baseman Aramis Ramírez and outfielder Brian Giles during the ’03 season, the Pirates were expected to finish near the bottom of the six-team National League Central Division. St. Louis, on the other hand, came into the season projected by Sports Illustrated and most pundits to finish third behind the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros.8

St. Louis took the first three games from Pittsburgh behind quality starts from Jason Marquis, Jeff Suppan, and Chris Carpenter. To complete the sweep, St. Louis called upon 37-year-old right-hander Woody Williams. Acquired from the San Diego Padres in August 2001, Williams earned selection to the National League All-Star team in 2003, finishing with an 18-9 record and a 3.87 ERA. Expected to front the 2004 rotation alongside Matt Morris, Williams was off to a difficult start: He came into the June 3 game with a 5.19 ERA.9

Opposing Williams was 22-year old southpaw Óliver Pérez. Pittsburgh had acquired Pérez (along with outfielder Jason Bay, the NL Rookie of the Year in 2004) from San Diego in August 2003. Although Pérez was the youngest member of the Pirates’ rotation, he had been their best starter in the early going, coming into his first June start with a 3.12 ERA in 52 innings pitched. Before the series finale, Pirates skipper Lloyd McClendon spoke frankly about his struggling rotation: “We’ve just been horrible. You can try to sugarcoat it all you want, but the starting pitching hasn’t been good.”10

After a scoreless first inning, Molina’s first major-league at-bat came with third baseman Scott Rolen on third and two out in the top of the second. Wearing number 41, Molina popped out to second baseman Abraham Núñez.11 In his second at-bat, with one out in the fifth, Molina smacked Perez’s first offering to left-center just over the outstretched glove of shortstop Jack Wilson for his first major-league hit. “The kid really teed off on that,” proclaimed announcer Mike Shannon on the Cardinals’ radio broadcast.

Notwithstanding Molina’s first hit, both Pérez and Williams breezed through the first five innings, allowing no runs. The best scoring chance came in the bottom of the second, when, with Núñez on second and two outs, Pérez singled to right. Cardinals right fielder Reggie Sanders, a Pirate in 2003, retrieved the ball and threw to Molina at the plate. Molina corralled the ball and dived to his left to tag out Núñez.

The Cardinals opened the scoring in the sixth. With two out, Cardinals shortstop Edgar Renteria doubled to center. Pérez got two strikes on first baseman Albert Pujols, only to hit him on the foot. Next up was Rolen, returning to the lineup after leaving the June 1 game early when a Ryan Vogelsong offering struck him on the helmet.

Pitching coach Spin Williams visited Pérez to discuss how to attack the star third baseman, who came into the game slashing .348/.410/.625 with 13 home runs. Whatever advice Williams offered Pérez did not help – Rolen pounced on the first pitch, lining a double to right-center to knock in his league-leading 54th and 55th RBIs and give St. Louis a 2-0 lead.

Pérez allowed another run in the seventh, and Molina was the table-setter. He opened the inning with a double, advanced to third on a sacrifice by So Taguchi, and scored on pitcher Williams’s sacrifice fly.

Behind 3-0, Pittsburgh wasted a golden opportunity in the bottom half. Bobby Hill and Núñez singled to open the frame, putting runners on first and second with nobody out. Cardinals manager Tony La Russa relieved Williams with lefty Steve Kline, who got pinch-hitter Bay to fly out to right for the first out. La Russa quickly went back to his bullpen for right-hander Julián Tavárez.12 Tavárez retired Randall Simon on a popup to Molina, and induced a fielder’s choice from Jason Kendall to end the Pirates’ threat.

The Cardinals added their fourth run of the game in the eighth when Rolen singled with two outs off right-hander Mark Corey and came home on a double by Sanders.

Pittsburgh finally scored in the eighth. Jack Wilson led off with a single and quickly attempted to steal second. But he was thrown out by Molina.13 A walk by first baseman Daryle Ward and a double by right fielder Craig Wilson put runners on second and third with one out. La Russa brought in southpaw Ray King to face the left-handed-hitting Rob Mackowiak.14 Mackowiak hit a sacrifice fly to deep center to score Ward. With King having retired the left-hander, La Russa brought in his closer Jason Isringhausen for a four-out save. An error by Cardinals second baseman Tony Womack allowed Wilson to score, but Isringhausen struck out Núñez to end the threat. After eight, St. Louis led 4-2.

In the ninth, tempers flared. Pirates lefty Mike González nearly hit Womack with a high pitch, prompting La Russa to yell at the Pirates “to get the ball down.”15 McClendon took umbrage at La Russa’s shouting and bolted from the dugout. Pushing past home-plate umpire Brian Gorman and first-base umpire Dale Scott, McClendon sought to get at La Russa. La Russa sprang from the visiting dugout and confronted McClendon. The two stood face-to-face screaming at one another as the benches cleared and umpires restrained the managers. The umpires limited the skirmish to screaming, shouting, and shoving, and the Pirates kept the score at 4-2 heading into the bottom of the ninth.

After the managerial fireworks in the top half, the bottom half of the ninth was uneventful. Isringhausen allowed a one-out single to pinch-hitter Chris Stynes but retired the next two hitters on groundouts. The Cardinals completed the sweep and moved seven games above .500.

Molina impressed in his big-league debut. He threw out a runner trying to steal second, tagged out another runner at the plate, had two hits and scored a run. Molina admitted some nerves during the game but said the tag play at home in the second calmed his jitters. “That was fun, huh?” said Molina. “I was just trying to get one hit. But I got two and we got a win.”16 “He’s got so much composure,” said La Russa. “He plays like he’s got 10 years of experience.”17 The veteran pitcher Williams also praised Molina: “He did a good job. He pays attention.”18

When Matheny returned from the disabled list on June 18, the Cardinals made Molina his backup catcher. Molina appeared in 51 games in 2004 and earned the start for St. Louis in Game Four of the World Series. The Cardinals opted to let Matheny sign with the San Francisco Giants as a free agent, and Molina became the Cardinals’ starting catcher for the 2005 season.

Molina seized the job and did not relinquish it until he retired after the 2022 season. With Molina behind the plate, St. Louis won the World Series in 2006 and 2011 and the NL pennant in 2013. Molina’s strong defense and game calling behind the plate was the hallmark of the 10-time All-Star’s major-league career (leading to nine Gold Gloves and four Platinum Gloves). But Molina’s bat played at the major-league level as he hit .277 and earned a Silver Slugger Award in 2013.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bill Marston and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Yadier Molina, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT200406030.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2004/B06030PIT2004.htm

Notes

1 Cody McKay, in his only season in St. Louis, served as the Cardinals’ backup catcher to start 2004. His father, former major-league infielder Dave McKay, was St. Louis’s first-base coach.

2 Rick Hummel, “Cards Win a Game But Lose Matheny,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 3, 2004: D1.

3 Stan McNeal, “Rock of St. Louis: Cardinals Catcher Irreplaceable,” USA Today, May 1, 2013, https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/cardinals/2013/05/01/yadier-molina-new-leader-of-st-louis-cardinals/2126929/. The scouting report was provided by Twins scout Edwin Rodriguez, who would later manage Molina with Team Puerto Rico during the World Baseball Classic.

4 Marlon W. Morgan, “Catcher a Hit with Redbirds,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, May 11, 2004: D3.

5 “Yadier Molina,” Baseball America, https://www.baseballamerica.com/players/4810-yadier-molina/. Accessed July 7, 2024.

6 Rick Hummel, “Molina Excels in Major League Debut,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 4, 2004: D7.

7 Hummel, “Molina Excels in Major League Debut.” In his two months at Memphis, Molina threw out 61 percent of baserunners attempting to steal, significantly higher than the average rate of 30 percent for Pacific Coast League catchers that season

8 Buzz Bissinger, 3 Nights in August (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005), 254-55. But the projected third-place finish was not universal – Tom Tippett of ESPN projected a first-place finish. Tom Tippett, “Projected Standings for 2004,” ESPN.com, https://www.espn.com/mlb/spring2004/news/story?id=1774245. Accessed July 28, 2024.

9 But with a 4.27 FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching), Williams was having a slightly more effective season than his ERA would indicate. Williams ultimately finished 2004 with a 4.18 ERA and 4.10 FIP and started Game One of the 2004 World Series for St. Louis against the Boston Red Sox.

10 Bob Smizik, “Starters Pull Down Pirates,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 4, 2004: B-5.

11 Molina wore number 41 during his first two years with the Cardinals. He switched to number 4 at the outset of the 2006 season.

12 MLB did not institute the three-batter-minimum rule until 2020.

13 It was the first caught-stealing of Molina’s career. The first stolen base against Molina was by Kendall, the opposing catcher, who was running on a 3-and-2 pitch in the sixth.

14 Only six days earlier, Mackowiak had hit a walk-off grand slam on the day his first child was born.

15 Rick Hummel, “Sweeping Developments,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 4, 2004: D1.

16 Hummel, “Molina excels in Major League Debut.”

17 Hummel, “Molina excels in Major League Debut.”

18 Hummel, “Molina excels in Major League Debut.”