MLB Scores: Yadier Molina hits the St. Louis Cardinals past Royals on Memorial Day

The St. Louis Cardinals' depth is incredible, but it's also a license to think some very strange thoughts about the way a World Series contender is constructed. That is: I love that Matt Carpenter can play so many different positions, but his very versatility was the gateway through which Rick Horton and Al Hrabosky began talking up the possibility of getting his bat into the lineup by playing Daniel Descalso in the outfield. In any case: On Memorial Day the Cardinals put Descalso at second and Carpenter in the outfield, and beat the Kansas City Royals by a score of 6-3 anyway.

This was a game in which a lot of things happened "anyway"—Wainwright gave up 12 hits but went eight innings and stayed under 110 pitches anyway, thanks to his new never-walk-anybody initiative. The Cardinals' foremost argument for the introduction of the DH, Matt Adams, went 0-5, and they got 12 hits of their own anyway.

Most impressively: The Cardinals have gone through a couple rotations' worth of pitchers already, and managed to pluck a starting second baseman out of the depth behind David Freese, and their most important player is, anyway, completely irreplaceable. Yadier Molina is now hitting .346/.389/.473. He's on pace to play 159 games. His backup, Tony Cruz, has taken fewer at-bats to date than Jaime Garcia.

Because he's not a moving part in a team that's defined by them, Molina's almost been overlooked in his eighth straight month of MVP-caliber performance. But if it's just the same I'd like it if he were sitting in the dugout, every once in a while, while I prepared my encomia to his greatness. Because I'm not sure there's a Matt Carpenter crouching behind him.