ST. LOUIS — They both lived the fairy tale. One started out as a 13th-round draft choice and ended up being the only player of all time with 700 home runs, 3,000 hits and multiple World Series titles. The other, the little brother in a family of major league catchers, grew up earning 10 All-Star selections and nine gold gloves, enough to have his left arm covered in tattoos of each.
The hitter, Albert Pujols, returned this season after a decade in California for a closing win. The catcher, Yadier Molina, never left. Together they played 31 seasons and more than 4,000 games for the St. Louis Cardinals. The birds on the bat might as well be named Albert and Yadi.
Well, alas, those birds flew. They went out with singles, both putting the go-ahead run on the plate in the late innings while facing elimination in the wild-card round. There had to be another exciting chapter, thought the Cardinals. The story would certainly not end.
“There was just so much magic going on with Albert and Yadi,” said pitcher Adam Wainwright, the third venerable cardinal from the championship years. “I just felt like you can’t go out like that. There’s too much good going on to lose two games in a row.”
But that’s how it ended, with the Philadelphia Phillies 2-0 win — in the game and in the series — that saw Pujols and Molina retired. It was the first playoff series win for the Phillies in a dozen years and the first time in a full season that a division winner didn’t even make the division series.
The Cardinals could blame baseball’s revised playoff format for that. One division winner per league must play in the new best-of-three wild card round. The other first place finishers – the ones with the better records – get a bye.
American League Central winners the Cleveland Guardians dropped the Tampa Bay Rays in two games. But the Cardinals, who won the National League Central, hit .185 and went 1 to 11 with runners in goal position against the Phillies. This is how fairy tales end.
“We didn’t hit the ball, that’s it,” said Molina. “It’s hard to lose that way, but we’ll fight to the end.”
Molina threw the final punch. The setting – two runs down, with a runner up and two on the ninth – must have felt familiar. A decade ago, when Molina was about to be eliminated from the playoffs in Washington, he showed up in the same spot and left to keep the season alive. This time, in front of Zach Eflin, he whipped a single right and left for a pinch runner.
Pujols had done the same in the eighth, singled out and left for a pinch runner in hopes a teammate could do the rest. The Cardinals’ best players at the time, Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, both cheered on Seranthony Domínguez. In the ninth, Tommy Edman came in third to finish the game. Pujols did not linger long in the dugout.
“I just took a moment, maybe less than 15 seconds, and went to the clubhouse,” Pujols said. “There is nothing to be sad about. It’s part of the game in baseball. I was also on the other side where you celebrate and win. I’d rather be on this side than this side, but it wasn’t to be for us this year.”
Pujols, 42, did his best. He made the All-Star break with a .215 average and six homers, unsurprising for the oldest player in the majors. In the second half, however, Pujols rose to a .323 with 18 home runs. He finished with 703 career homers – behind Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth – and only Aaron has ever hit more runs.
“I’ve never seen anything like what I’ve seen from him this year, from any player,” Arenado said. “I’m just amazed by his presence and the way he goes about his business. I’ve never seen a harder worker that age.”
Molina, 40, was a solid hitter but an exceptional catcher, born to play his brothers Bengie and Jose’s position. Molina used technique and wisdom to excel, earn his pitchers’ trust and inspire conviction in their decisions.
“He’s a game-changer, but he’s just a great teammate and friend and leader on this team,” said Wainwright, who made 328 starts with Molina’s comeback, the most for any battery in major league history. “He brings a comforting presence that’s hard to replace. It’s a very, very important position and he’s running his staff and the clubhouse as best he can.”
People here love to count Homers — every Cardinal fan now thinks of Pujols when dialing the Northern Virginia area code — but Molina’s numbers miss the point. Baseball Reference gives him just 42.2 wins over the reserve, fewer than several non-Hall of Famer catchers such as Thurman Munson, Bill Freehan and Jorge Posada.
Yet within the game – and particularly here at the home clubhouse – Molina is a ban on Cooperstown.
“How many times can you say you’ve played with two Hall of Famers on the first ballot?” Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas said. “How often does that happen?”
Mikolas accepted Saturday’s loss, conceding just two hits but both Phillies runs, the first a 435-foot homer by Bryce Harper. That was enough for starter Aaron Nola, who faded out the Cardinals in the seventh inning, just like Zack Wheeler did in Game 1. The bullpen wobbled a little — these are the Phillies, remember — but came through in the end.
For Phillies fans, it was belated revenge for a 2011 playoff loss that stalled the team for a decade. That year, the Cardinals were the wild card and won with a shutout in Philadelphia. This time the Phillies were the wild card and won with a shutout in St. Louis.
And maybe that’s fair in a sense, because the truth is that Pujols and Molina didn’t need another chapter. They had already written eternal stories no matter what happened this October. There was nothing left to prove and they knew it.
“I enjoyed every single moment; There’s nothing to regret,” Pujols said, later adding, “The memories, the time with my teammates, the fans, the spring training, popping the racquet every day – those are things you miss.”
That was so wistful when Pujols walked past his locker after the game. He insisted he hadn’t considered sharing a stage in the Hall of Fame with Molina in 2028, the first year they will be eligible for induction. That would symbolically make them teammates again, but for Molina, the bond with Pujols couldn’t possibly be stronger.
“I will always be his brother,” Molina said. “You can not ask for more.”