http://tinyurl.com/28vkfx What's ailing Albert? By Joe Strauss ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 04/15/2007 Ten games into the season and the Cardinals are hitting .240. It's a phase. Ten games into the season and Pujols is hitting .158 with one home run and two RBIs. Jupiter has collided with Mars. "Maybe it hasn't been that often, but I've gone through this before and I'm pretty sure I'll go through it again," Pujols said. "You just come to the park, stay with your routine and eventually good things will happen." With one home run and two RBIs in 34 at-bats, El Hombre's jagged start has sprouted questions like unwelcome mushrooms. Is last season's MVP runner-up pressing, dinged or merely not seeing the ball well? Pujols accepted three walks on the team's recent 5-1 trip, all of them intentional. He now has gone 36 at-bats since taking his last unintentional pass. As with other slumps in his career, Pujols has appeared "jumpy" rather than allowing the ball to "get deep" against him. "When you get out front, your hands don't do the work," hitting coach Hal McRae said. "I think that's where he is right now." Is he hurt? Pujols played most of spring training on a sore right hamstring. Not until Saturday did he confirm that on opening night he aggravated the right oblique that landed him on the disabled list season. He continues to receive treatment for the condition but insists it is not inhibiting his swing. "I won't use any of the injuries I have as an excuse," he said Saturday. Is he suffering a Florida hangover? The Cardinals labored this spring hitting into a pitcher's wind. Pujols proved to be no exception, as he waited until the final week of Grapefruit League action to crank his first home run. Manager Tony La Russa has wondered whether March's tough hitting climate may have spilled into a harsh April. "I think Albert's taken a lot of really good at-bats and hasn't been rewarded," La Russa said. "Being a human being, he gets frustrated with that. He's smart enough and talented enough to keep doing things right. He can't force hits." "Everybody has battled their tail off so far, but it's very difficult when it's cold like this," McRae said before the series. "That's not making excuses. That's from experience." Pujols detests cold weather. He has long insisted April is his toughest month. "I shouldn't say it because everybody hits in it, but I don't like it," he said. Is Pujols affected by what surrounds him? Scouts note Pujols has willingly expanded his strike zone. At the same time center fielder Jim Edmonds is being handled like a platoon player, or at least one not fully recovered from two surgeries in the offseason. Though leading the team with seven RBIs, third baseman and No. 4 hitter Scott Rolen is hitting .200 with one walk in 32 plate appearances. "When it works right, a lot of guys have things come together. They make each other better. So there's something to that," acknowledged La Russa, insisting he has not weighed moving Pujols from his signature No. 3 spot. Whatever his bat has come down with must be catching. The Cardinals are hitting a measly .240 while ranking as the only NL team to average less than three runs per game. They have averaged 1.5 hits per game with runners in scoring position. "I watch how the other clubs are pitching him," La Russa said. "Every game we play, they're thinking this is the minute he's going to do something big. He still gets pitched like he's hitting .450." Pujols is measured against his own uncompromising standard over six seasons that included 250 home runs, a batting title, a .332 average, 758 RBIs and almost 99 more walks than strikeouts. From 2001-06, he produced five of the game's top 46 RBI seasons, five of its top 46 runs scored seasons and five of its top 45 batting averages. Since reaching the major leagues, Pujols leads in RBIs and trails only New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez in home runs. Yet he has never won a league home run or RBI title. Consistency separates him from his contemporaries. "He's the best hitter I've ever seen, not even close," Cardinals shortstop David Eckstein said. "It's just a matter of time." In his six previous seasons, El Hombre endured only 12 streaks of more than five games without a RBI. Only three have occurred from 2004-06. Four fell during Pujols' 2001 rookie season, including a career-long 11-game drought in which he went five for 42 (.190) with five extra-base hits from June 27 to July 13. (The Cardinals, coincidentally, were 3-8 during the eventual Rookie of the Year's dry run.) Pujols has batted below .300 in only seven of 36 months covering his six full seasons. Only in July 2001 and June 2006 has he failed to hit at least .270. In his first six seasons, Pujols gave the Cardinals a lead 509 times while leading the major leagues in game-winning RBIs four times. He has yet to produce his first hit with a runner in scoring position this year. "What he's going through isn't abnormal," Rolen said. "What he's done his entire career is what's abnormal. This is more normal for human beings, for players, than what he's done for four, five, six years. It's just another day at the park for us." Or as outfielder Preston Wilson described, "His highs are higher and his lows are shorter than for the rest of us." Pujols constructed arguably the most productive April in the game's history last season, mashing 14 home runs along with 32 RBIs. The home runs established a major-league record for the month, and he never went more than consecutive games without an RBI. Pujols recalls entering last Easter still uncomfortable at the plate. That day against the Cincinnati Reds, he hit three home runs, including a walk-off shot, and never stopped. "When you're not swinging the way you want, you start thinking about a lot of negative things," he said. "If you're a good hitter, you need to go look at when things were going good. That's how it was last year. "When I hit those three home runs against Cincinnati, the first game that week I couldn't even see the ball. I got my hits, but I didn't feel right. It's not like you feel comfortable." Beginning that day, he said, "As soon as I got in the batting box, I knew I was going to have a great game. I knew I was going to hit the ball hard. All of a sudden it clicked for the rest of the year. Obviously, I haven't gotten to that point. "This is the slowest start of my career, but I look at it like there are so many games left," Pujols added. "Just one good game gets you back. Then you're in the mix. I know my swing's coming. It's just not there yet. When it's there, I won't have to worry about anything." Approached about Pujols before Friday night's rainout, an NL scout concurred. "This team might have problems," he said. "But that's not a problem." [email protected] | 314-340-8371 --

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