Herrera’s three home runs and other things the Cardinals have never seen before
One of baseball’s greatest joys is knowing that every day at the ballpark is a day that holds the potential of a unique experience.
If you look hard enough, you might see something everyday that you’ve never seen before. Catcher Iván Herrera gave everyone around the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday precisely that opportunity, achieving a feat that sprang first to his manager’s mind when asked if anything stood out in his memory.
“Your catcher running out to catch the opposing pitcher,” Oli Marmol offered dryly from his office at Fenway Park on Friday morning.
That was indeed one of Herrera’s unique feats in the midst of Wednesday’s 12-5 victory over the Los Angeles Angels. After Herrera’s third home run of the game, Brendan Donovan struck out swinging. The Angels then made a pitching change, and as they were doing so, Marmol came down the dugout to tell Herrera he was staying in the game to catch the ninth, rather than being replaced by Pedro Pagés as he had been in each of his first three starts.
The problem is that Donovan had made only the second out, and Herrera started to sprint out to the field in his equipment with Reid Detmers on the mound rather than one of his teammates.
Of course, that’s easy enough to tolerate given that Herrera’s more relevant achievement was the first three-homer game by a catcher in franchise history, as well as setting a new single game high water mark for total bases by a catcher with 12. It’s the sort of day that stands out for as long as the records hold up and creates stories for teammates to tell for years to come.
“It’s amazing doing something that was never done before,” Herrera said Wednesday. “Your grind that you did, all your career. Growing up, I didn’t have any money, anything, you know? Being able to accomplish these things, it means a lot for me, for my family, for my country [of Panama].”
Outfielder Michael Siani came up through the minors with the Cincinnati Reds, and was teammates in their system with superstar shortstop Elly De La Cruz. Siani said most of the rare feats he could remember off the top of his head came from seeing De La Cruz up close, and mentioned cycles by both him and fellow infielder Matt McLain. McLain, though, doesn’t have quite the same set of wheels.
“We were in Double-A, and [De La Cruz] hit a triple over the centerfielder’s head,” Siani recalled. “They threw the ball to the cutoff guy, and the cutoff guy was on the edge of the infield. He kind of tossed the ball to the third baseman, and as soon as he tossed the ball, he just ran.”
An accidental inside-the-park home run is impressive, but reliever Kyle Leahy recalled an even more unusual home run feat. He was teammates with Chandler Redmond at Double-A Springfield in 2022 when Redmond hit for the so-called “home run cycle” – a solo, two-run, three-run and grand slam homer all in the same game. Redmond and fellow minor leaguer Tyrone Horne – also playing for the Cardinals’ then-Double-A affiliate in Arkansas – are the only two players in recorded professional history with that achievement on their resumes.
Most of the Cardinals polled on Friday were sure that they’d seen plenty of things which would qualify but couldn’t seize on any off the tops of their heads. That, too, is the result of the daily rhythms of baseball; some things seem unique and then are gone with the shifting winds.
Paul Goldschmidt, for instance, ripped a towering foul ball in his first game as a Cardinal which clanged off the windows above the upper bowl seating section down the third base line in Milwaukee. Agog observers at then-Miller Park couldn’t remember seeing such a shot in that park’s history, matching Mike Laga’s legendary feat at the second iteration of Busch Stadium.
The Cardinals returned to Boston this week for the first time since 2023, and it was during that visit when Willson Contreras tap danced around the rules governing the pitch clock and the batter’s box, throwing off then-Red Sox closer Kenley Jansen and requiring MLB to clarify the kinds of tactics they would and would not accept when it came to toying with the game’s first play clock.
President of baseball operations John Mozeliak was an assistant general manager traveling with the team in September of 2001 when he was witness to Bud Smith’s no hitter in San Diego. While relatively common compared to other obscure feats, that remain’s the team’s last no-no, and Mozeliak is one of very few team staffers still remaining from those days.
Mozeliak said that he was taken aback when he learned Herrera was the first Cardinals catcher with a three homer day; he was particularly surprised that Hall of Famer Ted Simmons had never done so.
“When you think about a lot of our catchers in the last 30 years,” Mozeliak said, “they’re more defensive minded than necessarily offensive minded. But you never, on any given day, you never know.”
And perhaps more than anything, it’s never being able to know that makes the payoff all the more satisfying. That, and remembering which pitcher you’re supposed to catch.