All of the talk around the baseball world this morning is Carlos Beltran throwing out Josh Beckett at first base during Thursday's Cardinals-Dodgers game. While that was a more embarrassing play, it wasn't the best throw of the evening. That honor goes to St Louis catcher Yadier Molina, who nailed Dee Gordon stealing with an unreal throw in the seventh inning.
Gordon actually got a fantastic jump with Edward Mujica on the mound for the Cardinals, but Molina's throw was freakishly awesome. As soon as his glove made contact with the ball, Molina was up and throwing. He threw a strike in to Skip Schumaker at second, and the ball was right on the money for Schumaker to slap the tag onto Gordon to snuff out a Dodgers rally.
Taking into account how great of a base stealer that Gordon is (he came into the evening 30/38 on stolen base attempts) and just how fast he is, this throw was a thing of beauty. You can talk about how overrated you think Molina is (and lord knows I have, in light of his $75 million extension last offseason), but his defense is second to none among all catchers in baseball.
