Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina can’t find the ball because it’s stuck to his chest protector [Video]
St. Louis catcher Yadier Molina said he’d never seen anything like it before.
The same likely goes for everybody watching the Cardinals’ game against the Chicago Cubs on Thursday when this happened:
Cardinals pitcher Brett Cecil struck out Chicago’s Matt Szczur to lead off the seventh inning. But on the final pitch of the at-bat, the ball bounced into the dirt and onto Molina’s chest protector.
And it stuck there.
A confused Molina was unable to locate the ball, allowing Szczur to safely reach first.
After the game, Molina was still confused as to what happened.
“I didn’t feel anything different than every other ball,” he said after the game, “so I don’t know how that happened.”
But he took offense to the suggestion that the bizarre occurrence had anything to do with a foreign substance of some sort on his gear.
“Do I put anything on my chest protector to stick,” Molina said in response to a reporter. “That’s a dumb question.”
The Cardinals led, 4-2, at the time of the incident, but it didn’t last. Instead of being the first out of the inning, Szczur ended up scoring when teammate Kyle Schwarber hit a three-run home run two batters later. The Cubs would go on to win, 6-4.
“That play changed everything,” Molina said. “If we get that first out, everything changes.”
Twitter: @chewkiii
Get our high school sports newsletter
Prep Rally is devoted to the SoCal high school sports experience, bringing you scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
