Jose Molina Throws Out Four Would-Be Base Stealers, Doubling Red Sox’ Season Total

Jose Molina
threw out four Tampa Bay Rays baserunners trying to steal on Sunday, doubling the Red Sox catching corps' season total.

Molina has now nailed seven of eight runners this season. Meanwhile, Victor Martinez has gunned down just two of 29. Martinez caught New York's Robinson Cano in the season-opening series at Fenway Park and received credit for another would-be base stealer when Jon Lester picked off Baltimore's Cesar Izturis, who broke too soon for second base on Saturday and was nabbed by the southpaw. That putout  broke a string of 33 straight successful steals against Boston.

Sunday's feat was the
first time a catcher nailed that many runners in a game since Florida's Charles Johnson did it against
Montreal on Sept. 18, 2002. Catching four runners hasn't been done in the American League since Oakland's Terry Steinbach did so on July 31, 1992.

Molina wasn't just shooting fish in a barrel, either. All the runners were caught trying to swipe second base, and none of them were slouches. He caught B.J. Upton, Sean Rodriguez and Carl Crawford — not once, but twice. That's right, the same Carl Crawford who swiped 60 bases in 2009 and that averaged 50 steals per season since 2003. The video is available at MLB.com.

It should also be noted that Molina's efforts didn't translate to victory for the Blue Jays, as the Rays rolled to a 6-0 victory behind David Price's complete-game gem.