April 14, 2021: Yadier Molina catches his 2,000th game for Cardinals in loss to Nationals

This Wednesday afternoon game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Nationals was the rubber match of their three-game series in St. Louis. The Cardinals (6-5) were hoping to win the series after their 14-3 drubbing of the Nationals the previous night. With a dismal 2-6 start, the Nationals, who had won the series opener, 5-2, were already at the bottom of the National League East Division.1 Both teams had players in this game who had opted out of the 2020 COVID-shortened season and were being welcomed back by fans and teammates.2

In his 16th season in St. Louis, 39-year-old Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright (0-1, 8.22 ERA) was looking to build on his second outing of 2021 (one run allowed in five innings) after a terrible Opening Day start—7 runs in 2⅔ innings.3

After Wainwright threw his first pitch to leadoff hitter Trea Turner, the ball was thrown to the dugout and play was stopped. Yadier Molina, St. Louis’s catcher since the 2004 season, was behind the plate for his 2,000th major-league game.4

Wainwright walked off the mound waving his hands to encourage the crowd, the Cardinals’ dugout emptied, the Nationals’ players and coaches cheered as well, and the fans gave Molina a standing ovation.5 The players removed their gloves to applaud, and the 38-year-old Molina removed his mask to acknowledge the tribute. He was the sixth player in major-league history to play 2,000 games as catcher, but the first to accomplish that milestone with only one team.6

Although that first pitch was a ball, Wainwright threw a clean first inning.

Washington’s Joe Ross, who had not allowed a run in his only previous start of 2021, a five-inning no-decision against the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 9, started the home half of the first by walking Tommy Edman. After Paul Goldschmidt grounded into a fielder’s choice and Nolan Arenado flied out, Molina, batting cleanup and hitting .353 in the early going, came to the plate to more cheering from the COVID-limited crowd of 13,206.7 He blooped a hit into center in front of Victor Robles to give the Cardinals runners at first and second, but Matt Carpenter grounded out to first to end the inning.

In the second, it was Wainwright’s turn to work through a scoring threat. Josh Harrison drew a one-out walk and stopped at third on Starlin Castro’s double under future National8 Lane Thomas’s glove in center—Thomas dove, but missed the ball. Wainwright intentionally walked Yan Gomes to pitch to Ross. Ross had had some success hitting during his career,9 but not this time—he attempted to bunt for a hit but the ball fell at his feet. That left the bases loaded for Robles, who struck out to end the inning.

Ross needed only nine pitches to dispose of the bottom of the Cardinals’ order in the second.

The Nationals got on the board in the third. Juan Soto hit a slow one-out grounder to third and was safe with a single—Arenado didn’t even attempt a throw to first. Soto probably would have been safe anyway, but the ball fell out of Arenado’s glove after he caught it. Ryan Zimmerman, one of the players who had sat out the 2020 season over COVID concerns, hit Wainwright’s ninth pitch of the at-bat off the top of the padded wall in center for his first regular-season home run since September 11, 2019,10 and the 271st of his career, giving the Nationals a 2-0 lead. Harrison singled with two out but was left on first when Castro flied out.

All Ross allowed in the home half of the third was a one-out double to Edman. On the way, Ross notched his 300th career strikeout—Goldschmidt was the victim.

Both pitchers worked clean innings in the fourth.

The Nationals extended their lead in the fifth. Turner was credited with a double to open the inning when right fielder Edman knocked the ball down but it bounced away from him. Soto golfed a low pitch into center field for a single, and it bounced past center fielder Thomas, allowing Turner to score. Thomas was charged with his first error of the year so Soto was not credited with an RBI.

The Cardinals’ fielding difficulties continued in the next at-bat—although Edman caught Zimmerman’s fly, he almost collided with second baseman Carpenter in the process. After Kyle Schwarber looked at strike three, Harrison blooped a single into center, just over Wainwright’s outstretched glove, scoring Soto. Castro grounded out, but the Nationals led, 4-0.

After Edmundo Sosa’s one-out single in the fifth, John Nogowski pinch-hit for Wainwright, who had finished the fifth at 85 pitches. Nogowski grounded into a double play to keep Ross’s shutout going.

Jordan Hicks took over the Cardinals pitching duties in the sixth. Ross collected his first hit of 2021—a one-out single that bounced off the side wall in right. Back-to-back walks to Robles and Turner loaded the bases. Soto reached on a fielder’s choice, scoring Ross, but he was caught stealing to end the frame with the score 5-0, Nationals.

Ross was back on the mound in the bottom of the sixth. After two groundouts, Arenado bounced one off the center-field wall, apparently thinking “double” all the way. Halfway to second, he seemed to have a scare when he realized that Robles had fielded the ball perfectly off the wall and it was headed for second. Arenado sped up and slid in just in time to be safe. Ross, however, struck out Molina on his 89th pitch of the game to strand Arenado at second.

Ryan Helsley pitched the top of the seventh. It was uneventful other than a two-out walk to Harrison—Thomas caught Zimmerman’s liner without drama.

Sam Clay took the mound for the bottom of the seventh. If the bullpen could hold the lead, Ross was in line to be the first Nationals starting pitcher in 2021 to be credited with a win. Clay walked Austin Dean but got two outs. After his pitch grazed Sosa’s pant leg Tanner Rainey replaced him. Perhaps the change was to turn switch-hitting pinch-hitter Dylan Carlson around, since Clay threw left-handed and Rainey threw right. If that was the plan it didn’t work—Rainey walked him. Still, Rainey got Edman to pop out near third—several defenders converged and Castro made the catch.

More St. Louis fielding woes led to another Nationals run in the eighth. Pinch-hitter Andrew Stevenson walked with one out and took second when a pitch bounced off Molina’s chest protector. That put Stevenson in position to score when Turner dunked a blooper into left. Three Cardinals fielders converged on the ball, no one called for it, and the ball dropped between them for an RBI double, bringing the score to 6-0, Nationals.

Wander Suero needed only 12 pitches for three outs in the eighth. Despite the small crowd, the cheers of “Yadi! Yadi! Yadi!” were quite audible on the TV mic as Molina stepped up to the plate for his final at-bat of the game. Despite their encouragement, he flied out to end the inning.

Andrew Knizner replaced Molina in the ninth, and Alex Reyes was St. Louis’s fifth pitcher. Zimmerman walked and advanced to second on a wild pitch but was left there.

Austin Voth didn’t allow a baserunner in the home half of the ninth, giving the Nationals their first series win and the Cardinals their third series loss in the young season. Ross, who, like Zimmerman, had opted out in 2020 over COVID concerns, was credited with his first win since September 29, 2019. Wainwright took the 100th loss of his career, against 169 wins.

The Cardinals finished second in the NL Central Division, losing the wild-card game to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Nationals finished at the bottom of the NL East.

Molina—the youngest of three brothers from Bayamon, Puerto Rico who caught in the major leagues11—was named an All-Star for the 10th time in 2021. He played in 118 games as a catcher, the most in the National League. Although he didn’t add to his collection of nine Gold Gloves,12 he was second in the NL in “caught stealing as a catcher” (18) and “caught stealing percent” (40.9 percent).

Later in 2021, Molina announced that he would be retiring after the 2022 season.13 When he retired, Molina had caught 2,184 games, more than any other major-league catcher besides Iván Rodríguez, Carlton Fisk, and Bob Boone.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kevin Larkin and copy-edited by Len Levin.

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, and watched both teams’ broadcasts on MLB.tv. (The Nationals’ broadcasters were back in Washington, DC, broadcasting from Nationals Park, using the feed from the Cardinals’ cameras. In early 2021 broadcasters did not travel with the teams due to COVID-19 restrictions.)

Topps Now card from author’s collection.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN202104140.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2021/B04140SLN2021.htm

Notes

1 The Nationals had played fewer games than the Cardinals because their initial series with the New York Mets was postponed five days due to a COVID-19 outbreak. Rick Hummel, “Mikolas Throws Bullpen Session,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 13, 2021: B5.

2 Ryan Zimmerman and Joe Ross of the Nationals, and the Cardinals’ Jordan Hicks had opted out for 2020 due to the pandemic. Josh Harrison had just returned from COVID on April 12 at the beginning of this series.

3 Wainwright recovered nicely—by the end of the season he had a 3.05 ERA and a 17-7 W-L record, and was seventh in the NL Cy Young Award voting.

4 There was no chance of rain, so there were no concerns about the game not being official at that point. Zachary Silver, “Yadi in Elite Company, Catches 2,000th Game,” mlb.com, April 14, 2021, https://www.mlb.com/news/yadier-molina-catches-2-000th-game. Note that Baseball-Reference has this game as Molina’s 2,002nd at catcher, rather than 2,000th. A search of Stathead.com, —which uses Baseball-Reference’s game data, —credits Molina with 1991 games at catcher from 2004 through 2020, and this game was his 11th of 2021.

5 This game was Wainwright and Molina’s 277th game together (per the Cardinals TV announcers). By the next year, on September 14, 2022, they set a new record of 325 games as the starting battery.

6 The others with more than 2,000 games at catcher are Hall of Famers Iván Rodríguez, Carlton Fisk, and Gary Carter; and Jason Kendall and Bob Boone. Joe Rivera, “Yadier Molina Enters MLB Record Books with 2,000th Game Caught with Cardinals,” sportingnews.com, April 14, 2021, https://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/news/yadier-molina-mlb-record-2000-cardinals/1hut149d5806l14asvikbafqor.

7 For comparison, the Wednesday, April 10, 2019, game drew 36,244. The milestone was announced in advance, so it was probable that more fans would have been there if they had been allowed. Hummel.

8 On July 30, 2021, Thomas was traded to the Nationals for Jon Lester.

9 For example, Ross batted .244 in 2016 and was used occasionally as a pinch-hitter. For 2021 he batted .250 (8-for-32).

10 He also had two postseason home runs in 2019, one in the NLDS and the Nationals’ first score in Game One of the World Series.

11 Eldest brother Benji Molina, whose career with four franchises spanned 1998 through 2010, caught 1,285 games. José Molina caught 915 games with five clubs from 1999 through 2014.

12 The only catchers with more Gold Gloves are Iván Rodríguez (13) and Johnny Bench (10).

13 Zachary Silver, “Yadi Looks Forward to ‘Awesome’ Farewell Tour,” mlb.com, August 25, 2021, https://www.mlb.com/news/yadier-molina-to-retire-after-2022-season.