Cardinals: The bond between Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright

The St. Louis Cardinals have long had one of baseball’s most iconic duos.

The love between Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina is evident. They have been together for over a decade and have gone to battle in the biggest of games with the St. Louis Cardinals. So it was only fitting that Wainwright was the starting pitcher in Molina’s 2000th game behind the plate.

Before the game, Wainwright went into detail on his appreciation for Molina. The quote, via Zachary Silver of MLB.com, is an appreciation unlike anything we’ve seen from Wainwright, who is never shy to hype up his teammates:

“I already think he’s a first balloter because I think he’s great. I’m probably extremely biased, but I do think that. But today, that just put the stamp on it, didn’t it? 2,000 games caught. You don’t get to catch 2,000 games anywhere, but especially with one team, if you’re not just an unbelievable player. To have all the Gold Gloves to go with that, a couple of Platinum Gloves. He probably could have, honestly, 16 Gold Gloves. Who’s better than Yadier Molina behind the plate? No one. If you ask 29 other catchers in the game, ‘Are you better than Yadi behind the plate?”, there’s not going to be a whole lot of guys that raise their hand and say, ‘Yeah, I’m better than Yadier Molina.’ It’s just not going to happen.”

The Cardinals did not win Molina’s 2000th game, of course, losing 6-0 to the Washington Nationals. But Wainwright threw five innings and allowed three hits and seven runs while striking seven. He was praised after the game for having his vintage curveball that has allowed him to stay in the game for so long. But Wainwright, like always, deflected credit and pointed to Molina.

“I’m glad he’s my catcher,” Wainwright said.

He’s not alone.