Cherish these five memorable moments of the St. Louis Cardinals’ 2022 season

To spend the season around the St. Louis Cardinals was to be inundated with the quiet confidence they would still be playing baseball in the second week of October and long after.

What started as a quiet confidence they would overrun the Milwaukee Brewers — long before the standings reflected that reality – bloomed into a confident September in which the team felt they were setting up for a long run.

Instead, the bats went quiet. The legendary careers of Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols ended in 18 quiet innings against the Phillies, running the franchise’s postseason losing streak to five games and raising fair questions about the viability of the get-in-and-let’s-see model of contention.

That disappointment, however, doesn’t erase the best moments. The Busch Stadium schedule didn’t conclude with the desired fairy tale ending, but the thrills that brought the crowd to its feet throughout the year can still be cherished. Below are the five greatest moments from this season’s home slate.

5. Juan Yepez hits a pinch-hit, two-run home run to give the Cardinals the lead in game one of the Wild Card series

The Wild Card series didn’t end the way Cardinals fans dreamed, but it very nearly opened like a story book. Yepez, who slugged 12 regular season homers, had to fight his way back from Triple-A Memphis following an arm injury in July. Relegated to the bench in game one, manager Oliver Marmol foretold the precise spot in which he might be poised to make an impact in his office ahead of game one.

It took only one pitch from José Alvarado for Yepez to deliver on that promise. His high, arcing shot inside the left field foul pole was the first go-ahead, pinch-hit homer in Cardinals playoff history, and had Ryan Helsley’s right middle finger kept its feeling, it might immediately have entered the pantheon of unforgettable playoff moments provided by unexpected sources.

4. Paul Goldschmidt walks off the Blue Jays with a 10th inning grand slam

By the end of May, it was clear Goldschmidt was amid delivering the sort of season that saw the Cardinals target him as a franchise cornerstone. Entering the batter’s box against Ryan Borucki with the bases loaded May 23, anticipation in the stadium that he would get the job done was high, but the fireworks that followed brought the crowd to a frenzy.

The grand slam touched off a stretch which saw Goldschmidt establish himself as the inarguable favorite to win his first career National League MVP award. That feeling was so strong that it carried straight into his hitless postseason, and through a stretch which saw him hit only two homers after Aug. 25 and none after Sept. 7. Rounding the bases in May, however, the crowd was able to appreciate their first baseman at the peak of his powers.

3. Nolan Arenado throws out Kyle Farmer at home — from his knees

Perhaps Jim Edmonds’s finest moment in the broadcast booth this season was his incredulous response to the play Arenado made in the top of the fifth inning Sept. 16: “Who else even tries to make that play?”

Diving to his right to field a ground ball, Arenado forced himself to his knees, and with his momentum pushing him to the ground, delivered a perfect strike that cleared Farmer’s right shoulder by inches and would have hit catcher Andrew Knizner square in the chest had his mitt not been in the way.

Farmer, after the game, said he would’ve planted his face in the dirt trying to make that play. Reds manager David Bell, who played a decade at third base in the Majors, responded, “I have no idea” when asked how a third baseman could accomplish such a feat. Arenado has the power to turn a routine grounder to third into an unforgettable night at the ballpark.

2. Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright set a record with their 325th start as a catcher/pitcher battery

The countdown was on. The graphics were ready. The clock was in their favor — with even decent health, Molina and Wainwright would be able to celebrate their superlative careers together by setting a record which is unlikely ever to be broken.

Then, however, came Molina’s sore knees, and the feeling that the catcher wasn’t quite himself. He returned home to Puerto Rico to rehab both body and mind, and would later admit that he wasn’t sure he would return. Neither were his teammates, many of whom were anxious that they’d seen the last of their de facto leader.

When the two took the field together Sept. 14 and Wainwright pumped a strike past a respectfully watching Christian Yelich of the Brewers, it was the culmination of nearly 20 years of what each has described as a brotherhood, and it was their firm stamp on the game which will never wash away.

1. Albert Pujols hits a pinch-hit grand slam against Colorado

Molina and Wainwright were the players who stayed, but in so many ways, 2022 was the season of Pujols. His first home run in his return, against the Royals on April 12, led play-by-play broadcaster Dan McLaughlin to declare that it was, “like (he) never left.” But as the months wore on and he approached the All-Star break with only six homers, it was difficult to see that the magic was still there.

Pujols, of course, should never be doubted. Taking the reins of the offense in early August and delivering a multi-homer game against the Brewers just four days before, Marmol had a feeling that Pujols would deliver a dagger on August 18. And so, with the bases loaded in the third inning and lefty Austin Gomber on the mound, he pinch hit Pujols for Brendan Donovan, looking to deliver what would later be described as a “kill shot.”

It was the first pinch-hit grand slam of Pujols’s career as well as the last grand slam of any type he would hit before his retirement. It also kicked off a sprint to the end of the season in which he hit 14 home runs in 42 games and 120 at bats — roughly once every 8.5 at bats, or a better pace by more than two at bats than 2006, the year in which he hit a career high 49 homers.

The homer which passed Alex Rodríguez for fourth all-time came on the road. So too did his 700th. His final, 703, came in his last home at bat, just as he also delivered in his first ever home at bat. It was a fitting goodbye.

The grand slam was a hello. Albert was back, and by the numbers, better than ever.