ST. LOUIS — Wednesday wasn't much of a finale with both players on the bench for nearly all of the game, but it was a finale nonetheless. Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina's regular season careers are over.
The two retiring Cardinals legends had their final regular season game in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, with Pujols getting the entire day off and Molina popping out in a pinch-hit appearance.
So, with their regular season careers over, let's take a look at their final stat lines, and where they fit in baseball history.
Pujols ends his 22-year career as one of the greatest players in the history of baseball.
For his career, Pujols tallied 3,384 hits, 703 home runs, 2,218 RBIs and 1,914 runs in 11,421 at-bats. He has a career batting average of .296, a career on-base percentage of .374, a career slugging percentage of .544 and a career OPS of .918.
Pujols is fourth all-time in home runs in baseball history, 10th all-time in hits, fifth all-time in games played, fifth all-time in doubles, second all-time in RBIs, second all-time in total bases and he's the all-time leader in grounding into double plays.
In his farewell 2022 season, Pujols hit .270 with 24 home runs, 68 RBIs and an OPS of .895. Pujols' 24 home runs are the most he's hit in a season since 2016. His OPS of .895 is the lowest of any season with the Cardinals, but still higher than any season he spent with the Angels.
Outside of his long-time home parks of Busch Stadium II and III and Angel Stadium, the visiting park Pujols owned the most was PNC Park in Pittsburgh. In 102 career games at PNC Park, Pujols hit 35 home runs, drove in 101 runs, and hit .374 with an OPS of 1.176.
Amazingly, Pujols does not lead in any of the Cardinals' all-time franchise offensive statistics. He is second and third in a number of categories to Stan Musial and Mark McGwire.
Molina ends his career as one of the greatest Cardinals in franchise history, and one of the most historic catchers in baseball history.
In 19 seasons, Molina accumulated 2,168 hits, 408 doubles, 176 home runs, 1,022 RBIs and scored 777 runs in 8,553 at-bats. Molina holds a career .277 average and caught 12,294 and two-thirds innings behind the plate.
Among primary catchers, Molina is sixth all-time in games played, fifth in at-bats, fifth in hits, sixth in doubles, 13th in RBIs and second all-time in defensive WAR.
In Cardinals history, Molina is first all-time in double plays grounded into and first all-time in sacrifice flies.
Of the visiting parks he played at least 50 games in, Molina did the most damage at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati. In 119 games there against the Reds, Molina had an OPS of .808 with 16 home runs and 65 RBIs.
Of course, Pujols and Molina's careers aren't over just yet, with the pair poised to face the Phillies in the NL Wild Card round of the 2022 postseason.