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Sports

Josh Harrison blows up Yadier Molina at home plate, Molina (somehow) holds on

Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina was absolutely crushed by Pirates base runner Josh Harrison on a close play at the plate Tuesday night. Harrison’s shoulder made solid contact with Molina’s head and sent his mask…and body…hurling. Was it dirty? Eh, that’s for you to decide.

Miraculously, though, Molina was able to hold on to the ball for the out – though he certainly paid the price. Yadier was in visible pain and had to leave the game immediately following the collision with what was listed as “upper back/neck/shoulder strain.” He’s currently listed as day-to-day, which is good to hear considering it looked a lot worse.

Not to go unnoticed in the scary play was the great throw unleashed to the plate by Cards right fielder Carlos Beltran & the even better scoop by Molina right before the collision.

[MLB]

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Pete Blackburn

— Pete Blackburn

Created The Nosebleeds back in 2010 & a senior digital journalism student at Endicott College. Born & raised in Waltham, Massachusetts. "Come at the king, you best not miss." Follow @PeteBlackburn 

  • http://Enteryourwebsite... Jeremy

    How weird that this post follows a post about the SF Giants. Remember last year? At least Molina’s ankle is in one piece.

  • http://Enteryourwebsite... Lewis

    This is another ridiculous assault. There should be news rules on this type of play: the catcher should not be allowed to block the home plate. The runner should try to avoid contact. If the runner hit the catcher is out automatically. If the catcher blocks the plate, the run is automatically allowed. It’s as simple as can be…

    • http://Enteryourwebsite... Dayton

      Agree…and they should start hitting off tees too…

      • http://Enteryourwebsite... Larry

        Great comment, Dayton.

    • http://Enteryourwebsite... Larry

      Your right, Lewis. That way they won’t drop their pacifiers in the dirt. You have to go to 50+ softball leagues for the play you are taking about. You ARE ridiculous!

  • http://Enteryourwebsite... A

    This is part of 150+ years of baseball. Why would you make new rules to change a great game? It was a great play all around. Harrison flattened a guy much larger than him wearing body armor to get to the plate. His play really fired up the Pirates. Molina, on the other hand, made a fantastic play to catch the ball, block the plate, and hold on to the ball. This is playoff-type baseball!

    What’s next? Talk of fining any outfielder who steps on to the warning track because he might hurt himself on the fence?

    • http://Enteryourwebsite... Dean

      Don’t be so stupid – there is a huge difference between an outfielder who “might hurt himself” and a runner delibrately barrelling into the catcher. It was a great play on Molina’s part but I’ve never liked this part of baseball (same way I don’t like runners barelling into 2nd base when trying to break up a double play). If you want that kind of violence then watch football….

  • http://Enteryourwebsite... dennis

    i agree with dean and lewis. all of you so-called fans (idiots) of tradition need to realize that ball players are human beings — someone’s son, father, brother, etc. they are not robots sacrificing their health for your entertainment. just like in football with all the concussions. when will we as a society learn to adapt? i suppose you think smoking cigarettes is okay, too. wake up, it is not 1956.

    • http://Enteryourwebsite... jason

      There is absolutley nothing wrong with this rule. It’s alway’s going to be someones son, father, brother, etc so get over it. The player, or father i’m assuming in Dennis’ case, has a choice. You don’t want to get hit, or your son too, don’t play or let them play. I highly doubt Harrison was deliberatly trying to hurt Molina rather than get him to drop the ball. Very few players are intentionally trying to hurt an opponent. I’m sure there are some rotten apples but there are in every sport.

  • http://Enteryourwebsite... QMac

    Not suprised Yadi held on. He is one of the toughest players in the sport and the best catcher in the league. Defensively, no one comes close. His year by year offensive improvement is nothing short of impressive.

  • http://Enteryourwebsite... RTB

    It’s funny how in baseball there is zero contact anywhere in the game. If you even brush by a guy while he’s running from first to second, it’s considered interference. But yet this one time, it’s not just contact, it’s a collision, where you can absolutely destroy the guy.

  • http://Enteryourwebsite... jerry carlew jr

    When I played in Babe Ruth League back in the day, our league had a rule that you gave the top third of home plate to the runnner. In other words, you didn’t block the plate and the runner had access to the plate so none of this stuff ever happened.

    I have been on both sides of this as a player in semi-pro ball running over a guy at third and as a coach when my 14 year player laid at homeplate motionless….both instances made me sick to my stomach. Get this fixed…it ain’t football!

  • http://Enteryourwebsite... Matt

    Change the rule? Oh come on.

    These guys are competitors. If you’ve EVER played a contact sport in your life, you know the risk that’s involved. Guys take shots like this playing pick up games for crying out loud.

    If you don’t want to see anyone get hurt when they’re playing a competitive game of whatever sport it is, maybe you should stick to figure skating or swimming or some other equally as safe sport.

    I mean really. This ‘protect the players’ nonsense has gone too far. If the players aren’t okay with the risks, they wouldn’t be playing. It’s as simple as that. Molina knew he might get lit up and he did. You go ask him if he’d do it again, I can almost guarantee you he’d say yes. He got the out and that’s all that mattered to him in that moment.

    Does he regret it now? Possibly, but I seriously doubt it. Players get hurt, it happens. The good news for all you guys calling to eliminate contact is that when someone gets injured now, the team takes all the precautions in the world to insure that they’re 100% before they put them back out there. Justin Morneau, with a history of concussions from playing hockey, got one in a homeplate play and sat out the rest of that season and into the next one.

    That’s really all you can do. You’ll never eliminate concussions from football. You’ll never eliminate collisions at home in baseball. You’ll never eliminate hard fouls in basketball. What you need to focus on is making sure that the injuries, concussions or otherwise, are treated properly and that nobody is rushed back onto the field of play.

  • http://Enteryourwebsite... Dennis

    Frozen rope? He arched it from mid right field with his momentum going towards the plate–and he short hopped it!! Frozen rope. I saw stronger throws from kids in the LLWS. What went unmentioned was that Molina got the short hop with the runner barreling down on him.

    • http://Enteryourwebsite... jdburn

      Thank you! Someone needs to teach this clueless writer that a ‘frozen rope’ does not take a bounce off the ground!

  • http://Enteryourwebsite... KJ

    I’ve seen harder hits in pre-season hockey.

  • http://Enteryourwebsite... Big Reds Fan

    I could look at that hit all day and never get tired of it.

  • http://Enteryourwebsite... Jim Morter

    As a catcher in high school, I gone run over by a runner, not unlike what happened to Molina. My left shoulder was dislocated. My coach popped it back into place, and told me to get back behind the plate. It’s called baseball…..no new rules needed.

  • http://Enteryourwebsite... jerry Carlew jr

    It has been my experience that most folks on message boards who take the “macho” route never actually PLAYED THE GAME. (You stay on a board long enough, you figure these things out.) It’s easy for strut your masculinity from a keyboard. By the way Matt, what position did you play in High School…flute or tuba…I’m thinking drum major myself.

    Again, things are different when you see your neighbor’s kid carried off the field with a broken collarbone or worse. And in EVERY OCCASSION, you get mad at the opposing coach regardless of how you felt about it beforehand. The game goes south pretty hard after that.

    If the same happens in football, well that’s football. I can certainly sit back and enjoy an MLB ear-holing a wideout all day long because that’s football. And please make no comparisons to hockey because it ain’t snow-neck soccer…thank God for that!

    Let the runner take out the guy at second but give the runner at home 1/3 of the plate. I’ll bet Ray Fossee would agree to that today.

  • http://Enteryourwebsite... A

    Dean: “Don’t be stupid” How can you call it a great play on Molina’s part and yet complain about the “runner barreling into the catcher”? If you hate this aspect of baseball, then Molina made an awful play by running well into the baseline…i.e., it was interference and he put the runner at risk.

    Dennis: “idiots” “wake up, it’s not 1956″ More players have received major injuries sliding feet first into a base than bowling over a catcher. Are you intending to ban sliding, too? Again, not sure on the stats, but I believe more players have been hurt hitting OF walls than bowling over catchers.

    I guess you guys care more about talking about eliminating the appearance of violence than actually stopping major injuries.

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    I seldom drop remarks, however I looked at a great deal of remarks on The Nosebleeds

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    “Josh Harrison blows up Yadier Molina at home plate, Molina (somehow) holds on | The Nosebleeds” ended
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