Pujols, Molina Get Hits in Final At-Bats Before Being Removed to Emotional Standing Ovations

Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina may not have had storybook endings to their careers on Saturday night, when St. Louis lost to Philadelphia 2–0 in Game 2 of the NL wild-card series to end the Cardinals’ season. But the two iconic hitters did end their careers on nice individual notes.

Pujols, who batted third in the bottom of the eighth inning, laced his final base hit of his MLB career—a single down the third-base line—that came with a standing ovation from fans inside Busch Stadium.

Then, with St. Louis still trailing 2-0 heading in the bottom of the ninth and the Phillies down to their final out, Molina delivered a single off Phillies pitcher Zach Eflin to advance a runner to third and put the winning run at the plate. However, when Tommy Edman fouled out to third base, the Cardinals were eliminated and the careers of Pujols and Molina ended.

“Two of the best to ever play this game in their positions, that’s two Hall of Fame players, the game is going to miss those two guys,” Harper said.

The Phillies’ pitching along with Bryce Harper’s solo home run and Kyle Schwarber’s extra run on a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning were enough to lift Philadelphia to the division series.

Phillies starter Aaron Nola’s clutch performance (6 2/3 innings, zero runs) came a day after Zach Wheeler did not allow any runs through 6 1/3 innings Friday. 

“Our starting pitcher was unbelievable the last two days,” Harper said. 

As such, the Phillies became the fifth team to have a starting pitcher throw at least six scoreless innings in each of their last two games of a postseason, joining the 1921 Yankees, the 2018 Dodgers, the 2019 Astros and the 2020 Braves, according to ESPN Stats and Info.

Philadelphia also ended its streak as one of two teams—the Mariners—with the longest playoff droughts in MLB entering the 2022 season. The first game of the NLDS series between the Phillies and the Braves will be Oct. 11.