Since reading about Albert Pujols’ pre-game confrontation with Astros pitcher Brandon Backe yesterday and seeing the highlights of the Cardinals’ 6-4 win over Houston last night, I have been chomping at the bit to get home and write the first line of my game review: Note to the Houston Astros-stop making Albert Pujols angry…you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry. Unfortunately, mlb.com beat me to the punch on the Hulk reference, which apparently wasn’t as funny and original as I had been thinking at work all morning…what are you gonna do?
As for the game itself, the Cardinals jumped all over Astros starter Chris Sampson, leading off the game with three straight singles. Pujols knocked in a run with the third of those three hits and Troy Glaus added an RBI single of his own to make the game 2-0 right off the bat. Rick Ankiel would add RBI hits in the 3rd and 5th innings to push the lead to 4-0. St. Louis starter Braden Looper was on a roll through 5 innings, but struggled in the 6th with a 4-1 lead. Three straight Astros hits cut the lead to one run before Kyle McClellan came in in relief to shut down the run. Albert Pujols responded in the next frame by blasting a pitch to left field to make the game 5-3. The Astros again pulled to within a run against Randy Flores, but Ryan Franklin came in and got Hunter Pence out to end the 7th and mowed down Lance Berkman, Carlos Lee, and Miguel Tejada in the 8th. Pujols added an insurance homer to right field in the top of the 9th to give Jason Isringhausen a 6-4 lead to come in and close out.
As I’ve noted in this blog, Pujols has not been hitting poorly so far this year, as hit average and on-base percentage were off the charts. But he had not hit a home run since his Opening Day shot was taken off the books due to the rain cancellation, and he came in to the game with only one RBI. While he says the change is due to a few adjustments he made at the plate, it is tough to deny the scuff with Backe probably fired him up more than a little. The argument stemmed from sour feelings over Pujols’ tough slide into home last night. Despite the fact Pujols called Astros’ catcher J.R. Towles to apologize for the incident, Backe appeared to continue to take umbrage and the two got into a heated exchange during batting practice this morning. The bad blood goes back much further than that, however. Pujols was upset at the Astros for prematurely celebrating their National League Championship in game 5 of the series, noting that he though Backe, in particular, had already popped the champaign. Of course, Pujols responded then by blasting a home run into Galveston and effectively ending the career of Brad Lidge (who I am convinced still sees Pujols in his nightmares).
Skip Shumaker and Pujols each had 3 hits, pushing Pujols’ average to .379. Rick Ankiel added 2 hits of his own to put him at .314 and 2 RBI to give him 8 for the season. Glaus chipped in with his 6th RBI of the year. Looper took the win despite the shaky 6th inning to put him at 2-0 on the year, and Isringhausen collected save #5. The 7-2 Cardinals will head to San Francisco to take on the 3-6 Giants tonight at 9:15 (Central time). Adam Wainwright (1-0, 2.25 ERA) takes on Giants righty Kevin Correia (0-1, 6.00 ERA).
