Yadier Molina does push-ups at the plate, singles on next pitch

Every major leaguer knows how important it is to stay fit during the long baseball season. But Monday night during the Philadelphia Phillies-St. Louis Cardinals series opener, Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina took that to a whole new level.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Cardinals had a man at first with Molina at the plate. Phillies reliever Brett Oberholtzer fired a 1-2 pitch to Molina that was extra close to his knees and calves, which made Molina scoot back from the plate. Except his little jump caused him to tip forward toward the ground.

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Instead of scrambling back up and pretending it never happened, Molina decided to go with it. He landed on his hands and did two push-ups. And he did them while still holding on to the bat! The crowd absolutely loved it, and they gave Yadi a nice cheer for his extra effort. And then Molina stood up, got set in the box, and punched the very next pitch to left center for a single. (The crowd loved that even more.)

If mid at-bat push-ups have that kind of success, maybe they’ll catch on and we’ll see more batters doing extra exercise when they’re in the box. They could even diversify with jumping jacks, toe touches, and yoga poses! It couldn’t hurt, could it?

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