WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. • Yadier Molina says the broken bat is somewhere in his locker.
Carlos Martinez, pitching for the Dominican Republic, cracked it. Molina, slugging for Puerto Rico, singled. And even in the midst of a heated competition, the teammates-turned-opponents failed to hide their smiles.
“Believe me, I didn’t want to face him,” Molina said this weekend, after he returned from the World Baseball Classic. “I didn’t want to hit against that guy there. But it was fun.”
“I didn’t want to (face him) either,” Martinez admitted.
Martinez vs. Molina, practically a baseball unicorn, occurred during the international tournament that captured the nation’s attention and lured two of the Cardinals’ biggest stars away from Roger Dean Stadium this spring.