Pujols, Cardinals Can't Catch Up in Game 3

Slugger Stymied By Young; Padres Extend the Series: Padres 3, Cardinals 1

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 7 -- Albert Pujols went striding toward the plate Saturday afternoon, thumping the barrel of his bat against one of his massive thighs, a study in confident, controlled aggression. This was one of the moments he lives for, when the opposition has little choice but to pitch to him. And it also was Game 3 of the National League Division Series, and Pujols's St. Louis Cardinals were perhaps one big hit away from completing a sweep of the San Diego Padres and thus rescuing a season that appeared lost only a week ago.

Pujols waited in the grass outside the dirt circle around home plate while the Padres held a mound conference around their pitcher, Chris Young. It was the bottom of the sixth inning, with the Cardinals down by three runs and the mighty Pujols representing the potential tying run.

The sequence that occurred next, however, would send the stunned Cardinals searching their mental libraries for recent precedents. On the fifth and final pitch of the at-bat, Pujols, the most selective slugger in generations, chased a fastball well outside the strike zone for strike three, and from there it was a straight line that led to a 3-1 Padres victory in front of 46,634 at Busch Stadium, extending the best-of-five series to a Game 4 on Sunday.

"I got a little tingle in my body," Padres center fielder Mike Cameron said of the sixth-inning duel between Young and Pujols. "We got it done."

For the Cardinals, who still lead the series two games to one, the loss meant they must pitch their ace, Chris Carpenter, on Sunday, rather than gaining the luxury of saving him for Game 1 of the NL Championship Series. Carpenter will face San Diego's Woody Williams.

As an advertisement for the championship-worthiness of the National League, the game was seriously lacking. The Padres won despite stranding 14 base runners and going 1 for 15 with runners in scoring position. The one hit was Russell Branyan's two-run double in the fourth off Cardinals starter Jeff Suppan, the biggest hit of the game.

The finest performance of the day, however, belonged to Young, the 6-foot-10 former Princeton basketball star, who tossed 6 2/3 scoreless innings and racked up nine strikeouts, two of them coming against Pujols. Though hardly overpowering -- his fastball hovered in the 88-to-90-mph range -- Young's deceptive, short-armed delivery makes him difficult to hit. During the regular season, he led the majors with a .206 opponents' batting average, and he has not lost a road game since June 2005.

"He's not difficult at all," grumbled Pujols. "He's just a pitcher, like everyone else."

That Pujols would give little or no credit to Young was surprising, because Young manipulated him like few pitchers have.

During the entire regular season, there were only two occasions in which Pujols struck out twice in the same game against the same pitcher, the way he did against Young on Saturday -- once against San Diego's Jake Peavy, and once against Houston's Roy Oswalt, two of the toughest right-handers in the league.

Pujols's plate discipline is legendary. He struck out only 50 times this season, while smashing 49 homers -- Ted Williams-type numbers. But on Saturday, Young twice struck out Pujols by getting him to chase outside the zone -- a slider in the fourth, an 88-mph fastball in the sixth.

"He doesn't [chase] very often," said Cardinals reserve outfielder Scott Spiezio. "He does it fewer times than anyone I've ever seen. He almost never strikes out, period. So if you get him twice in the same game, you're a very good pitcher."

Asked about Pujols's failures Saturday, Cardinals second baseman Ronnie Belliard said: "He's a human being, and he's going to strike out. I know everybody is waiting for the home run. But he's a human being. I told him if we lost this game [Saturday], then he's going to be the man [on Sunday]."

There would be one more chance, following Young's departure, for Pujols to alter the trajectory of the game. In the eighth, after a leadoff pinch-hit homer by So Taguchi pulled the Cardinals to within two runs, Pujols came to the plate to face Padres setup man Scott Linebrink with one out, once again representing the tying run.

Many teams would have walked Pujols in these situations -- even though it runs contrary to the baseball rule against putting the tying run on base -- a testament to Pujols's sheer, fearsome ability.

"The guy, he's an incredible hitter," Padres Manager Bruce Bochy said. "But sometimes you're forced to pitch to him, like we were today. And we came out okay. Hopefully, we don't get in that situation too often."

Here, in the eighth, Padres catcher Rob Bowen trotted to the mound to talk to Linebrink -- reminding him, no doubt, to tread carefully -- and Pujols once again stood on the grass outside the dirt circle, watching them.

This time, Pujols grounded meekly to third base, the start of an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play, and within moments the aisles began filling up with red-clad fans, making their way for the exits. Pujols had somehow failed to come through, and there was nothing left to see here.