The euphoria was short-lived, and maybe the throng at Busch Stadium simply had to catch its breath, because the second game of the National League Championship Series fit nicely into a wild postseason in which the normal games are the anomalies. When Kolten Wong’s bottom-of-the-ninth-inning home run snuck over the right-field wall, there was that burst of excitement, because it provided a 5-4 victory over the San Francisco Giants and evened the series at a game apiece. Shout, scream, dance … and then get ahold of yourself, because the week ahead could be grim.

They deify their ballplayers here, erecting statues outside Busch for the greats, Musial and Smith and Dean and the rest. Someday, Yadier Molina will have a statue along the plaza, too, because he has caught for two World Series winners, because he has been an all-star six times, because he has won six Gold Gloves.

But as important as Wong’s at-bat leading off the ninth was – and the fact that he drilled Sergio Romo’s second pitch for the Cardinals’ fourth solo homer of the evening saved St. Louis’s season, for the time being – Molina’s at-bat in the bottom of the sixth may have more of an impact on the series going forward.

No outs, man on first, veteran lefty Jeremy Affeldt on the mound for San Francisco, Cardinals trailing 3-2. Molina took a strike, then fouled one down the right-field line – and grimaced. He took a ball, then drilled the next pitch on the ground toward second. The easy double play would have quieted the crowd plenty. The fact that Molina never left the batter’s box turned the bleachers into church pews during silent prayer.

“Didn’t look real good,” Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny said.

Giants reliever Sergio Romo walks to the dugout after allowing Kolten Wong’s game-winning home run Sunday night. (Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)

Molina bent down, and clutched his knees. He needed help to even move off the field. This wasn’t just a sixth-place hitter hobbling to the bench, down the tunnel, into an uncertain week ahead. This wasn’t just some light-hitting catcher. This was the Cardinals’ heart, and 46,262 suddenly went still.

The official diagnosis: a strained left oblique muscle. Doesn’t sound that bad? Consider that the obliques are involved in basically every baseball motion – throwing and hitting – not to mention breathing. “We don’t know much more about it right now,” Matheny said, and doctors were performing tests on Molina shortly after the game. There is an off day to further assess, but if Molina is not behind the plate in Tuesday’s Game 3, who is picking the Cardinals to survive? Those that are may not have watched the remainder of Game 2, and the mayhem that occurred after Molina came out.

“You can’t say enough about what he does for our team, the way he handles our pitching staff and the leader that he is,” third baseman Matt Carpenter said. “Certainly, it’s disappointing not having him out there.”

Consider, first, Molina’s standing in his own clubhouse – and in the game. The two catchers in this series, Molina and Buster Posey of the Giants, also happen to be the most indispensable parts of two tested teams. Before the game, San Francisco Manager Bruce Bochy – a former catcher himself – was asked about Posey’s impact on his team. But he couldn’t overlook Molina.

“You look at St. Louis and their success,” Bochy said. “Well, I think you have to give Molina a lot of credit for what he does for them, and we say the same thing about our guy, Buster.”

So when Molina felt something in his left side during his first at-bat, Matheny said the coaching staff and athletic trainers watched him closely. When he came up in the fourth, with two on and nobody out, Matheny curiously asked him to bunt – and his physical condition was a factor. “That was into the equation,” Matheny said, and even though Molina successfully sacrificed, the out given to the Giants helped kill the inning, and the Cardinals scored just once.

By his third at-bat, he couldn’t take it, and he was done. Matheny said afterward he is already evaluating whether St. Louis will have to replace him on the roster for the rest of the series. The Cardinals will tell you that they have overcome injuries before, and indeed they played without Molina for 40 games because of a thumb problem. “It’s not like we just started losing games,” closer Trevor Rosenthal said. But the numbers say otherwise. St. Louis went 62-47 when Molina started, 28-25 when he didn’t.

Kolten Wong celebrates while rounding the bases after hitting a homer to lead off the ninth that gave St. Louis a 5-4 win over San Francisco on Sunday night in Game 2 of the NLCS. The series is tied 1-1. (Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)

So when he went down, the dugout felt it, too.

“Guys were like, ‘Let’s get this one for Yadi,’ ” said veteran catcher A.J. Pierzynski, picked up in July when Molina was hurt. “I heard that from a lot of guys.”

And even though the Cardinals won – getting a pinch-hit homer from rookie Oscar Tavares in the seventh, a go-ahead homer from first baseman Matt Adams in the eighth and then Wong’s blow to win – Molina’s almost was too much to overcome, even for three innings. In his place came Tony Cruz, a former 26th-round draft choice who has caught in 158 major league games – 1,144 fewer than Molina. And this was nearly a full-blown disaster.

In the top of the seventh – Cruz’s first inning – he allowed a passed ball that put the lead run in scoring position, and the Giants went ahead. In the eighth, batting in Molina’s spot, he struck out. And then, the ninth, with Cardinals closer Trevor Rosenthal on the mound.

“Trevor throws hard,” Cruz said. “We all know that.”

With two outs, Rosenthal and Cruz had men on first and second and Giants rookie Joe Panik at the plate. With the count full, the runners moved on the pitch, a 99-mph fastball that skipped short of the plate. Would Molina have blocked it? Perhaps it’s impossible to say. What we know: Cruz couldn’t. Worse, he couldn’t find it. Pinch runner Matt Duffy never broke stride and scored all the way from second.

“It’s tough,” Cruz said. “I know I got a glove on it, and I was just trying to find it after that. I saw it go up, and then I didn’t really see it.”

This is, more than likely, what the Cardinals will deal with in San Francisco, Cruz or the 37-year-old Pierzynski behind the plate. It’s why, when Wong hit the homer that evened the series, the fans who filed ot of Busch knew there was a more important at-bat earlier in the night, and it ended with their team’s leader reduced to a hobble, his future uncertain.