CINCINNATI — Ejected from the game Wednesday and forced to find somewhere other than the dugout to watch, Cardinals manager Mike Shildt found a chair in the sub basement batting cages at Busch Stadium, not too far from his usual perch. At some point in the eighth inning, in came Andrew Knizner in full catcher’s gear, shin guards to mask.
“I was like, ‘Is Yadi OK?’” Shildt recalled.
“I do this every game,” Knizner replied.
The Cardinals’ seldom-used but always-busy backup catcher went through his usual regimen of catching fastballs off the pitching machine and blocking balls, in his gear.