http://tinyurl.com/qpw4o With one swing, Pujols chases the blues away and brings fans hope By Bernie Miklasz ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 09/28/2006 As this horrific late-September slump raged, desperate Cardinals fans sought alternative therapies to heal their ailing team. On Internet message boards, the calls went out for prayers, hexes, lucky charms, the ritual burning of sage. Anything to reverse the hideously evil karma that seemed to permeate Busch Stadium. None of this would be necessary. With the stadium clock ticking toward 10 p.m. on Wednesday, the solution and the cure would be provided by a familiar figure, a calming influence, the game's best hitter, a St. Louis icon, the Musial for younger generations of Cardinals fans. His name, of course, is Albert Pujols. We call him El Hombre. And all the Cardinals needed was a mighty, perfect swing from Pujols to restore their breathing, restore their pulse rate, restore their universe. With the San Diego Padres four outs from completing a three-game series sweep that would shove the Cardinals deeper into depression and misery, Pujols chased the blues away and turned the power back on. In one of the most important moments of his career -- and that's saying something considering all he has accomplished -- Pujols stepped in with two outs in the eighth. He was dished a slicing, sidearm fastball above the knees by the superb Padres reliever Cla Meredith. Meredith entered the contest with an 0.72 ERA. He has nasty stuff. But this is Pujols. He connected cleanly and with violent intent. He walloped a three-run shot high into night, the baseball landing in the far-off seats in left. "I might make that pitch 100 times a year and get away with it," Meredith said. "Not tonight. He's Albert Pujols. What more can you say?" With 40,358 standing and waiting and hoping and pleading, Pujols delivered to give the Cardinals a 4-2 victory and oxygen. It was his 47th season of the season, and No. 248 for his career. But few Pujols bombs could match the impact of this one. The home run wiped out a 2-1 deficit and shattered the Cardinals' brutal seven-game losing streak. It erased a demoralizing top of the eighth, when the Padres went ahead 2-1 on an error and a wild pitch. The home run filled the stadium with laughter and life. It generated a needed burst of joy in the home-team dugout and clubhouse. It made an increasingly bleak situation seem less ominous. It guaranteed that the Cardinals would remain at 1 1/2 games up on the Astros with four (or five) games remaining. "I'd say, considering the circumstances, it's got to be his biggest" of the season, manager Tony La Russa said. "This is one of the most huge of the huge ones he's had." There were other baseball heroes for the Cardinals. Two rookie pitchers formed a vise and squeezed the Padres lineup. Starter Anthony Reyes went six tough-minded innings, working out of trouble, checking the Padres to one run. And in his first pure save opportunity, Adam Wainwright closed it out in a two-strikeout ninth. The irony was beautiful. Not too long ago, Reyes was banished to the minors. He has been slow to earn the manager's trust. There's been some internal wrestling over his pitching style. But with reliable veterans Jeff Suppan and Chris Carpenter coming up short Monday and Tuesday, it was up to the kid, Reyes, to stop the bleeding. And he did. And Wainwright, deemed too inexperienced to take over the closer's role earlier this season, didn't muff the chance. But Pujols put an emphatic stamp on a big game. He helped manufacture the Cardinals' first run with a two-out single and stolen base in the fourth, positioning himself to score on an RBI single by Scott Rolen. And then, the eighth inning. During their seven-game blight, the Cardinals either had the lead, or were tied, in the seventh inning of all seven losses. But in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings they unraveled. The Cardinals were outscored 21-5 during innings 7, 8, and 9. They had hit only .205 in the final three innings, and their pitchers had been torched for a .405 batting average. Someone had to reverse the trend. Guess who? "I don't put any pressure on myself," Pujols said. "I just look forward to going out there to help my team to win a game. That's my job. That's why I get paid. I'm paid to drive in runs to help my team to win. I'm going to go out there and take advantage of any opportunity the other team gives me." Pujols now has a career-high 47 homers and 133 RBIs. On many days he has dragged this battered team to victories. This was Pujols' 19th game-winning homer of the season -- the most since Willie Mays, who put up 19 in 1962. So why has Pujols been downgraded as an MVP candidate by short-attention-span pundits? Yes, Philadelphia's Ryan Howard has had a grand season. But there is only one Albert Pujols. Never forget his name. --

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