Catchers feel Molina’s pain
ST. LOUIS— Anybody who saw it cringed immediately.
Those in the Cubs’ clubhouse who have experienced lesser versions of it immediately felt Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina’s pain. “It could have been me or another catcher,” Willson Contreras said of the foul tip to Molina’s cup Saturday that caused enough damage to require emergency surgery that night.
Kris Bryant fouled a 102 mph pitch directly into Molina’s cup, at which point the ball hit the dirt and caromed back into him. The Cardinals described the damage as a “pelvic injury with traumatic hematoma,” or what’s believed to be a ruptured testicle.
“That’s the worst pain that a catcher can get,” Contreras said of the less severe shots to that area every catcher experiences. “I just feel for him. He’s a great player. He’s the life and soul for that team. I hope we keep [ him in] our prayers, and I wish him the best to be back on the field.” Cubs backup catcher Victor Caratini, a fellow Puerto Rican, knows Molina well and texted him just before the surgery.
“I just hope he can recuperate quickly,” Caratini said.
Molina was said to be walking by Sunday afternoon. The divisionleading Cardinals estimate he’ll be sidelined for a month.
“He’s their source,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “It’s not easy to lose a guy like that. Everybody goes through it during the course of the season. . . .
“They’ll fight through it because they have the pitching that they can fight through it with, too.”
This and that
Maddon used his fifth leadoff man when he batted Contreras there Sunday night — in part as one of his favorite methods for jump- starting a struggling regular.
Maddon also said he wanted to get struggling Ian Happ back in the outfield but isn’t ready to return his young Opening Day leadoff man back to the heady role.
“Just didn’t want to lay that on him right now,” Maddon said.
Left fielder Kyle Schwarber said the reason he fell on Matt Carpenter’s routine fly ball Saturday was because his cleat on one foot caught the leather top of the other as he turned— tearing the shoe and knocking him down. He still got up in time to make the catch.
“That’s a first for me,” Schwarber said of the fall, then smiled when someone told him he at least kept his cool. “It might have looked like it.”