It took less than a week for Major League Baseball to provide its first wacky play of the season.
In the seventh inning of the St. Louis Cardinals’ matchup with the Chicago Cubs, Cardinals pitcher Brett Cecil spiked a curveball in the dirt that catcher Yadier Molina blocked with his chest protector.
Cubs hitter Matt Szczur swung and missed for strike three and took off for first base. Molina searched frantically for the baseball, only to make a shocking discovery: The ball was stuck to his chest.
Molina’s chest protector essentially is flat, so there’s no way the ball got wedged in anywhere. That pretty much leaves one explanation:Â Either the ball or his chest protector was really, really sticky.
We’re going with the latter, and going further out on a limb to guess the sticky substance was pine tar. Then again, maybe Molina ate a whole bunch of pancakes and maple syrup with his hands as a pregame snack. Who knows?
What we do know is the bizarre mishap didn’t help St. Louis. Cecil went on to allow four runs in the inning — three on a Kyle Schwarber home run — and took the loss in a 6-4 Cardinals defeat. Don’t put pine tar on your chest protectors, kids.
