Yadier Molina’s Controversial Walk-off Double Lifts Cardinals to 4-3 Home Win Over Reds

Yadier Molina had already provided his brother, Bengie, with something to talk about when he homered in the fifth inning at Busch Stadium on Thursday, as Bengie was doing a Spanish internet radio broadcast upstairs.

Yadier Molina’s Controversial Walk-off Double Lifts Cardinals to 4-3 Home Win Over Reds

That broadcast was part of a promotion for Hispanic Heritage Month.

However, Molina gave his brother another reason to keep talking. After the Cincinnati Reds tied the game in the ninth inning, the catcher hit a controversial, walk-off RBI double that led the St. Louis Cardinals to a thrilling, 4-3 victory over the Reds.

The win put pressure on the Giants, who beat the Rockies late on Thursday to keep the Cardinals a game back of the second National League Wild Card spot. The Wild Card-leading Mets, off on Thursday, maintain the top spot with three days remaining in the regular season.

“Pure excitement. Pure joy,” Cardinals outfielder Stephen Piscotty said of the ending. “That’s a huge hit from a legendary player. Just the way the crowd reacted, it was just something that was playful, and it was cool to have that moment.”

Molina stepped up to the plate with two out and the potential winning run on first, and smacked a ball to left field. It bounced off the warning track and hit a panel of signage beyond the wall before caroming back into play. A throw from left fielder Adam Duvall was too late to get Matt Carpenter, who raced home to start the celebration.

What made Molina’s double so controversial? As the hosts began to celebrate in their dugout, the Reds remained on the field, desiring to challenge that the ball should have been ruled dead– and the umpires should have therefore ruled Molina’s hit as a ground-rule double– when it hit the signage. Cincinnati’s manager, Bryan Price, waited too long before requesting a review, and the game officially ended.

“In this situation, Bryan Price did not come up on the top step,” crew chief Bill Miller told a pool reporter after the game. “We stayed there. I waited for my partners to come off the field. I looked into the dugout, the Cincinnati dugout, and Bryan Price made no eye contact with me whatsoever, and then after 30 seconds he finally realized, somebody must have told him what had happened, and we were walking off the field.”

Before Molina’s walk-off double, the Reds had scored runs in the eighth and ninth frames. Duvall’s RBI single drove in one before an infield single by Scott Schebler in the ninth tied the score with two outs. In the bottom half of the ninth, Carpenter drew a one-out walk to initiate the Cardinals’ final big rally.

Cardinals center fielder Randal Grichuk allowed the Reds to tie it up in the ninth when he misread Ramon Cabrera’s fly ball to open the inning. Grichuk was unable to recover in time, and Cabrera’s toss flew over his glove for a double. A groundout pushed Cabrera to third before Schebler got a hit off closer Seung Hwan Oh that St. Louis had not chance of fielding for an out.

Joey Votto delivered his third hit of the night in the top of the eighth with a lofted double to left field that one-hopped in front of Tommy Pham. However, as Votto hustled and slid into second base, he was hit in the face by Pham’s toss. This left him with a bloodied chin that force him out of the game; he would need seven stitches.

“I feel fine,” Votto said after the game, his chin bandaged.

The Reds (67-92, 5th in NL Central) will next host the Cubs on Friday in their final series of the regular season (first of three games). Reliever Josh Smith will make his second start of the season.

The Cardinals, (83-76, 2nd in NL Central) meanwhile, will host the Pirates in the first game of their final three-game series on Friday. Cardinals righty Carlos Martinez will take the mound. Martinez is 15-9 on the season.

ST. LOUIS, MO – SEPTEMBER 14: Yadier Molina #4 of the St. Louis Cardinals hits a single in the eighth inning against the Chicago Cubs at Busch Stadium on September 14, 2016 in St. Louis, Missouri. The Cubs defeated the Cardinals 7-0. (Photo by Michael Thomas/Getty Images)