MILWAUKEE (AP) — Albert Pujols appeared poised to give the St. Louis
Cardinals the big hit they always expect. Instead, he failed to
deliver in a result that's become far-too-familar this year.
With St. Louis trailing by three runs in the seventh inning, Pujols grounded into a double play with runners at the corners and no outs, thwarting a rally attempt in a 9-6 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers in Sunday's NL championship series opener.
The three-time NL MVP has just one RBI in six playoff games after grounding into a major league-leading 29 double plays during the regular season.
With St. Louis trailing by three runs in the seventh inning, Pujols grounded into a double play with runners at the corners and no outs, thwarting a rally attempt in a 9-6 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers in Sunday's NL championship series opener.
The three-time NL MVP has just one RBI in six playoff games after grounding into a major league-leading 29 double plays during the regular season.
St.
Louis wasted a 5-2, fifth-inning lead and was trailing 8-5 when Rafael
Furcal chased Zack Greinke with a leadoff single in the seventh. Jon
Jay's hit-and-run single off Takashi Saito advanced Furcal to third.
Ahead 2-0 in the count, Pujols fouled off a pitch and checked his swing on the next as umpire Gary Darling called a low strike. Pujols appeared rankled, looking upward, muttering and stepping out of the batter's box.
Pujols pulled Saito's next pitch down the third-base line, breaking his bat and sending shards flying nearly as far as the ball. Jerry Hairston Jr. scooped up the ball, starting a 5-4-3 double play as Furcal came home. Lance Berkman popped up, and the Cardinals didn't advance another runner past first.
Game 2 is Monday night, when Edwin Jackson
Ahead 2-0 in the count, Pujols fouled off a pitch and checked his swing on the next as umpire Gary Darling called a low strike. Pujols appeared rankled, looking upward, muttering and stepping out of the batter's box.
Pujols pulled Saito's next pitch down the third-base line, breaking his bat and sending shards flying nearly as far as the ball. Jerry Hairston Jr. scooped up the ball, starting a 5-4-3 double play as Furcal came home. Lance Berkman popped up, and the Cardinals didn't advance another runner past first.
Game 2 is Monday night, when Edwin Jackson
faces Milwaukee's Shaun Marcum.
Given
a 5-2 lead, Cardinals starter Jaime Garcia allowed a two-run double
to Ryan Braun and a two-run homer to Prince Fielder on consecutive
pitches in the fifth. Braun also hit a 463-foot, two-run homer in the
first after Hairston walked.Garcia insisted Saturday he would not be thinking about letting the Brewers' biggest stars beat him. A day later, Braun and Fielder drove in all six runs Garcia allowed.
Reliever Octavio Dotel made a throwing error that allowed Rickie Weeks to reach, and Yuniesky Betancourt's two-run homer made it 8-5.
After Braun's first-inning homer put Milwaukee ahead 2-1, the Cardinals went
ahead on David Freese's three-run homer in the fourth. Lance Berkman added an RBI single in the fifth.
Milwaukee
and St. Louis split 18 games during the regular season in one of
baseball's most intense rivalries in recent years.Nyjer Morgan took to his Twitter account and referred to Pujols as "Alberta." Greinke said
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