Why Yadier Molina’s injury might not be as big of a deal as you think

SAN FRANCISCO – As he often does, Yadier Molina spoke quietly Monday afternoon, just loud enough to make a point about his involvement in whatever’s left of the St. Louis Cardinals’ season.

“It’s not over,” he said.

That qualified as the best possible news for the Cardinals given Molina fouled his oblique just the night before, hopped a four-hour flight to the coast, slept on a hotel bed, bused to AT&T Park and then was handed a baseball with instructions to throw it. He did, and everybody seemed to think it went fine, including Molina. He did not, however, go anywhere near the bat rack. His side hurts, he said, when he “twists.” The belief that Molina could hit in a game in the near future, beginning with Tuesday afternoon’s NLCS Game 3, would require a schooner-ful of optimism. A round for the house then, ’cause the Cardinals are buyin’.

“That was the worst feeling I had in my career,” Molina said of the pain that nearly toppled him in the batter’s box. “I thought it was going to be bad. [But] this morning I woke up feeling better.”

Manager Mike Matheny said the Cardinals would keep Molina on the roster and even consider having him catch an inning or two as a late defensive replacement. After a day of treatment he said included massage, ice and “some other stuff,” Molina seemed game for that. It’s all subject to change, of course, depending on how quickly he heals and how long the Cardinals stay in the tournament.

Assuming Molina’s impact on the series is at least lessened, if not eliminated altogether, maybe his absence won’t be as devastating as it would appear, and here’s why:

Given the methods by which the San Francisco Giants score their runs, which have become increasingly, let’s say, creative, one might assume they can get around the basepaths a little. Funny thing, though. They were last in the league in steals, with 56. If that sounds low (they stole 118 in their 2012 championship season), now consider that Angel Pagan, who accounted for a team-high 16 of the 56, is not on the postseason roster. A slow team, and perhaps a conservative element is a part of that, just got passed by Billy Butler. You know, in baseball terms. Eight Giants all season stole even one base, and only five of those are anywhere on Bruce Bochy’s October lineup card. The Giants don’t run much.

This is not to say the only part of the NLCS that would’ve changed with Molina’s unraveled oblique is on the basepaths. Not even close. The man commands the clubhouse, directs the pitching staff, and hits near the middle of the Cardinals’ batting order. He’s part man, part cotter pin, if a cotter pin had neck tattoos. But, unless Bochy’s been holding back since April, waiting for this very moment, and unless, say, Buster Posey has been sandbagging his cornering speed his whole life, it would not appear Molina’s injury will alter much of the way the Giants go about trudging from first to home.

Imaginative as that’s been lately.

A.J. Pierzynski, for one, might be a bit old and physically vulnerable, but scouts still like the way he calls a game. Also, he caught plenty of John Lackey this season in Boston and St. Louis, so they know each other reasonably well, and Lackey is the Cardinals’ Game 3 starter. So far we’ve seen Tony Cruz clank one of Carlos Martinez’s running fastballs and fail to block one of Trevor Rosenthal’s spiked fastballs, the latter leading to one of the Giants’ signature postseason hey-we-scored moments. But the Cardinals like Cruz’s defensive just fine. He’s not Molina, but neither is anyone.

The loss of Molina stinks for the Cardinals and could ultimately be the reason they don’t finish the Giants, if that’s how this ends. There are some numbers that won’t dissuade the doubters. Adam Wainwright’s ERA with Molina this season was 1.78. With Cruz it was 3.59. Trevor Rosenthal’s ERA was more than a run lower with Molina. Shelby Miller’s was slightly lower. But the Giants are not an offensive juggernaut, and they generally don’t generate much on the basepaths, so the Cardinals just might survive this, as long as they get over the emotional impact of not having their de facto captain alongside. When Molina injured his thumb in early July and missed 40 games, the Cardinals won 21 of them. They survived it.

“We are not sticking our head in the sand and saying it’s no big deal,” Matheny said. “He’s a catcher and he’s a big part of our club. But, with that being said, we have an opportunity with some very good guys to step in and hopefully figure out how to just keep the ball rolling.”

It sure looks like who they are now, and who they could be for the rest of the series, at least, and the Cardinals are as skilled as any at coping. Any team playing into mid-October is. So they’ll wait on Molina, and hope for the best, and play Game 3 and beyond with him or without him.

“I am going to try to do my best,” Molina said, which is where they’d leave it for one day.