Watch: Cardinals, Pirates combine for embarrassing play

The St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates seem to think that it is still spring training.

During Wednesday’s game between the two NL Central teams, they combined for the most embarrassing sequence of the 2025 season thus far. With the score knotted at 0-0 in the eighth inning, Cardinals first baseman Willson Contreras stepped up to the plate with runners at first and second and two outs.

Contreras hit a towering infield fly that looked certain to end the inning on the spot. But disaster struck for the Pirates as first baseman Endy Rodriguez failed to communicate with catcher Joey Bart and ended up running smack into him, allowing the ball to drop in the infield.

Fortunately for Pittsburgh though, they were let off the hook by an even dumber play by Cardinals lead runner Thomas Saggese. While watching the play unfold, Saggese wasn’t running particularly hard as he made it past third base and toward the plate, slowing down as Rodriguez and Bart collided. Saggese then slowly and very awkwardly maneuvered around the pile-up, which allowed Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes to pick up the loose ball and tag Saggese out at home.

Here is the video of the slapstick-comedy play (in which Rodriguez and Bart were both ultimately OK).