In Sunday’s NLCS Game 2, the Cardinals had to replace an injured Yadier Molina with a bad Tony Cruz, and while the Cardinals went on to still win the game in dramatic fashion, oblique injuries are a real problem, which means Molina will at least be compromised if he’s even able to play, and that’s awful news for St. Louis. Now, about Molina vs. Cruz — below, please find a mostly pointless comparative exercise, focusing on Trevor Rosenthal’s ninth inning.

Before Kolten Wong was the hero, Rosenthal looked like the goat. Tasked with preserving a one-run lead, Rosenthal gave up a single, then a single, and then he threw a wild pitch on a walk that allowed a runner to score all the way from second base. This is that full-count wild pitch:

There exists a line of thought that, had Yadier Molina still been catching, that pitch wouldn’t have gotten away. By the numbers we’ve got, relative to Cruz, Molina is the far superior pitch-blocker, which shouldn’t come as a surprise since Molina is terrific across the board. I agree that Molina is better than Cruz at this, but to be honest I think this might’ve gotten away from anybody. The pitch was 99 miles per hour, and it bounced, and Rosenthal had never before in the major leagues thrown a fastball so low. This pitch was almost destined for the backstop. Maybe with Molina, the runner doesn’t actually score, but that’s a tough block for anyone.

Let’s rewind to mere moments earlier. You want to compare Molina to Cruz? Here is Joe Panik’s plate appearance:

The closest ball was the third ball, and here’s what that looked like:

Cruz stabbed, and dropped his head, and flinched his right arm. Catching a borderline two-strike fastball, Cruz did the opposite of limit his movement, and you figure that contributed to the pitch being called a ball. Now, when the count is 0-and-2, we know that the called strike zone shrinks. Umpires don’t like to call three-pitch strikeouts. But, Molina is a better receiver than Cruz. We know that generally, and we know that specifically.

This year, on fastballs over the plate and between 1.5 – 2 feet off the ground, Molina got 80% called strikes, and Cruz got 66%. Over the past three years, the difference is 81% vs. 70%. And Cruz, yesterday, showed unusually poor technique, and Molina probably would’ve done a better job.

Baseball Prospectus also allows us to evaluate framing data by battery. Since Rosenthal debuted, Cruz has caught him with 252 framing opportunities, and he’s come in about nine strikes below expected. Molina, meanwhile, has caught him with 1,099 framing opportunities, and he’s come in about 16 strikes above expected. So, Molina receives better than Cruz, and Molina receives Trevor Rosenthal better than Cruz.

Which is all to say, had it been Yadier Molina catching there instead of Tony Cruz, maybe there’s no wild pitch, but even before that, maybe Panik gets called out and Rosenthal gets the save and the game ends. Rosenthal threw a good 0-and-2 pitch. Cruz just didn’t make a good 0-and-2 catch. You see that the next two pitches, also, were close, so they also provided framing opportunities and Cruz couldn’t sell well enough.

Of course, had Molina not been removed for Cruz, everything could’ve happened very differently. The Giants, at least, would’ve had different plate appearances, and Panik wouldn’t have been in the exact same situation. So that’s why this is a mostly pointless exercise.

But I guess the general point is valid: Yadier Molina sure is a hell of a lot better than Tony Cruz in every possible area. You knew that before yesterday. You knew that before you even knew who Tony Cruz was.