Pujols erases doubts with monster Game 2 (BLOG)

MILWAUKEE — If that was a statement Milwaukee first baseman Prince Fielder was making in Game 1 of the NLCS on Sunday afternoon, then his St. Louis counterpart and fellow free-agent-in-waiting, Albert Pujols, delivered a full-fledged oration in Game 2 on Monday night.

Fielder is awful good.

Pujols is, well …

"I've been (with the Cardinals) 35 years," said traveling secretary C.J. Cherre, "and when you start talking about Stan Musial and Albert in the same sentences and nobody questions it. … Well, that says about all you can say."

This isn't just feel-good talk when it comes to Pujols. It's the facts.

Mull this around:

Pujols is the type of player who was hitting .333 in this postseason after Sunday's loss to Milwaukee in the NLCS opener, but he only had one RBI in six games, hadn't hit a home run and had three doubles, but they all came in one game. So there was a sudden panic to try to understand what was wrong with Pujols.

"Nothing," said manager Tony La Russa before Monday's game. "He could be the hitting star (Monday) and nobody should be surprised."

He was. They weren't.

St. Louis pounded out a 12-3 victory against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park, sending the series to St. Louis with the teams having split the first two games.

And it was Pujols swinging the sledge hammer.

There was the two-run home run off Shaun Marcum in the first that put the Cardinals up 2-0; a two-run double in the third that made it 4-0; an RBI double in the fifth, when he also scored on a wild pitch to extend the Cardinals lead to 7-2, and finally, a one-out double that keyed a four-run rally that put the game out of reach in the seventh.

Impressed?

"You have to be impressed with him every single day because of how he approaches the game," said teammate Matt Holliday. "He's so productive, so consistent."

Surprised?

"Not a chance," said Holliday. "He's the best I've ever seen at staying focused at the job at hand. He gets two hits and he's figuring out a way to get a third. He gets three and he wants that fourth. Some guys feel they've had a big night and take a deep breath. He's always looking for a way to make the night bigger."

They don't get much bigger for Pujols than the game on Monday night. It was only his second four-hit game of the 63 postseason games he has played in his career, and the first five-RBI game on his postseason resume.

His home run was the 14th of his career in the postseason, a Cardinals franchise record, and tied him with David Justice for eighth on baseball's all-time list, one behind Babe Ruth. His five-RBIs gave him 42 in his postseason career, tied for eighth on baseball's all-time list, and tops in Cardinals history.

Oh, and he's now hitting .414 this postseason.

"If you watch his batting practice (Monday), he was fine-tuning his stroke," said La Russa. "He really wasn't trying to hit the ball out of the park. He was just thinking about how he could have better at-bats. He's such a pro, so smart."

It's like that run he scored on the Marco Estrada wild pitch in the fifth. The ball didn't really get too far away from catcher Matt LuCroy, but Pujols read the pitch perfectly, got a quick jump and scored without much trouble.

"It's almost like he is deking everybody," said Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak. "He just has such a great work ethic and such great instincts. He has that knack to make the big play."

He didn't make the big play in the Cardinals' 9-6 loss on Sunday, when Fielder keyed a six-run fifth inning that rallied the Brewers to an 8-5 lead by unleashing a mammoth two-run home run. With runners on first and third and no outs in the seventh, Pujols grounded into a double play to deflate a potential rally.

"(Sunday) was tough," he said. "Going to bed, I was thinking about the opportunity that I could have helped our team to win. (Monday) was a new page. It was a new chance to help my team."

Right now, he is using baseball's big stage to undoubtedly reinforce his big-play potential on the offseason free-agent market. He did, after all, turn down a 10-year, $200 million deal from the Cardinals last offseason as they try to avoid having him go on the open market.

Instead, he and Fielder are going to be out there, looking over offers from teams wanting impact bats.

It's going to be interesting to see what type of market can be created in light of the fact the traditional big spenders seem pretty well set at first base. The Yankees have Mark Teixeira. The Red Sox have Adrian Gonzalez. The Phillies have Ryan Howard.

The Cardinals surely will make their push to keep Pujols, and there undoubtedly will be some competition. There always is. Heck, a year ago, the Washington Nationals came out of nowhere and coughed up $126 million over seven years for Jayson Werth, and he's never even had a 100-RBI season.

That, however, isn't a topic of conversation that Pujols discusses.

He will worry about his financial future sometime during the offseason.

Right now, his focus is on the field, and adding to his already gaudy credentials in a St. Louis uniform.

"You have to enjoy every game, every postseason, because it might be your last one," Pujols said.

"I've been so blessed to be in so many, and having a World Series ring (in 2006) so young in my career. And I'm just hungry all the time, because you can't take this game for granted, that's for sure."
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