Smiles were in short supply on a cold Saturday at Busch Stadium when the end of two historic careers came much sooner than expected. However, Albert Pujols chuckled—even if it was just for a second—when close friend and teammate Yadier Molina refused to go down easily near the end.

With two outs in the ninth inning and the careers of Molina and Pujols hanging in the balance, the veteran catcher showed off his trademark grit and refusal to roll over by singling to extend the baseball lives of the Cardinals legends just a little bit longer.

“I was really happy for [Molina] there because he’s like my little brother,” Pujols said. “Then, I started pulling for Tommy [Edman] to hit a three-run homer so we could have a Game 3. I’m just happy for Yadi that his last at-bat was a base hit. For him, just like me, it’s going to take a while for this to soak in. More for him, actually, because he’s been with this organization for 19 years.

“At the end of the day, we’ve both been so blessed because we’ve had unbelievable careers,” added Pujols, who had two singles in his final game. “But I feel like we left a mark—him here [in St. Louis] and myself in every place I played.”

St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright and catcher Yadier Molina made their 324th career start Thursday, tying the major league mark set by Detroit’s Mickey Lolich and Bill Freehan from 1963-1975.

Wainwright and Molina got a standing ovation from the crowd as they made their way in from the bullpen moments before first pitch against the Washington Nationals.

Wainwright and Molina are scheduled to set the record against the Milwaukee Brewers on Sept. 14.

The duo made their first start together on April 6, 2007, at Houston. Wainwright notched his first of 212 wins as a starter with Molina as his catcher, which is a major league record for batterymates.

Molina, 40, will retire at the end of the season, but Wainwright, 41, has not publicly announced a decision on his plans for 2023.

After 19 years in the majors, and more than 18,000 innings crouched behind the plate, the old catcher has two World Series rings and has earned more than $170 million. After all of that, what is the next step? Traveling the world? Building a beach home? Plopping down in front of a television and disappearing from the limelight?

Yadier Molina, the longtime backstop of the St. Louis Cardinals, whose résumé is widely expected to land him in the Baseball Hall of Fame, doesn’t want any of that yet. Whenever the Cardinals’ season ends, he will immediately head to Venezuela to embark on his next chapter: managing.

Catchers are often called managers on the field because they are involved in every play and are the only players positioned facing out at the entire field rather than in at a batter. But Molina’s teammates and coaches said he has taken that role to another level thanks to his ability to see things that few else do.

Molina liked the taste he got when he managed his native Puerto Rico’s under-23 team in the Pan American Baseball Championship. But he has never managed at the professional level — at least, not formally.

Officially, Oliver Marmol is the Cardinals’ manager. Unofficially, Molina has been sharing those duties for quite a while.