http://0rz.tw/132y8 Pujols turns to video as hits elude him By Bernie Miklasz ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 04/08/2007 HOUSTON — This just in: ALBERT PUJOLS IS HUMAN. Yes, that shocking .059 batting average belongs to Pujols, the greatest hitter of his generation. The .118 slugging percentage is his, too. This is no mistake, no misprint. "Let me say this," manager Tony La Russa said. "If Albert is our problem, then we don't have any problems." Still, El Hombre has been so consistent and so unstoppable through the first six seasons of his career, that when he goes hitless in four of the first five games of the season, or gets shut down through any stretch, his fans are alarmed. The chorus cries out: What's wrong with Albert? "That's OK, because I ask myself that, what's wrong, when I go through it," Pujols said Saturday night, after the Cardinals quickly succumbed to Houston starter Roy Oswalt in a 5-1 loss to the Astros. "I want to know what's wrong, too. But at the same time I say, 'You know what? I'm glad I'm healthy, and I'm glad that I'm here.' "This is part of the game. You can't make things happen. You can't force it. It has to come to you. What can you do? You hit the ball hard but right at somebody. Or you get a good pitch to hit and you miss. It's part of the game." Pujols was cordial and accommodating after Saturday's game in discussing his dry hitting spell, but make no mistake, this is bugging him. He's a perfectionist. And so after he grounded into a 6-4-3 double play in the ninth inning, Pujols retreated to the clubhouse and headed to team video director Chad Blair, who cued up the last at-bat. Pujols doesn't normally study video immediately after a game, but on this night he locked himself into an intense study session, wanting to see how Oswalt got him out. Oswalt had thrown a fastball, down and in. Pujols believed he should have crushed it. "I missed it," he said. "That was a home run pitch right there, and I hit into a double play. You get frustrated. When something like that happens you think, 'What happened?' " Pujols has one hit in his first 17 at-bats of 2007. He's not alone; as a team the Cardinals are batting .192, and slugging .286. If this happens to another player, we shrug. It's a mini-slump, and all hitters endure them. But Pujols has impossibly high standards. His greatness has become so ordinary, so routine, so expected, that it probably cost him last year's National League MVP Award. Pujols hangs ridiculously good numbers every season, and so we tend to take them for granted. Pujols' hitting accomplishments are viewed as something natural, not supernatural, because he does this all the time. There's no shock value. Unless, of course, he isn't hitting. Then it's news. And we scratch our heads and wonder if Pujols is feeling OK physically or distracted by personal issues. He had a bland spring training, batting .286 with two homers. And now this, hitless in four of his first five games. I checked through his career batting logs and discovered that Pujols has gone hitless in four of five games on only a few occasions: twice in 2001, once in 2003, and once in 2005. His worst drought was a five-game hitless streak in September 2001. "Physically I feel right," Pujols said. "I'm seeing the ball good, and that's the main thing. I might be a little jumpy, or a little bit late on the swing. But most of the time, I'm seeing the ball good. I just don't feel comfortable at the plate. Obviously I don't feel I'm where I need to be. I had a tough spring training. What can I say? I'll find it." How long will it take? "Hopefully not too long," he said. "Hopefully it will be sooner than later." Are you close? "Nope," he said, smiling. "And when I get close, I'll tell you." Actually, Pujols won't have to tell us. We'll know by the crack of the bat, and a look of anguish on the pitcher's face. --

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