The Great Pujols

In Buzz Bissinger's book (which he co-wrote with Tony LaRussa) Three Nights in August, he early on in the book refers to the current Cardinal first baseman as "the great Pujols". Last night, Albert Pujols proved that it's not just a fanciful artistic license.

As you know from yesterday's post, the Cardinals were in the deepest of holes last night. Check that. The hole was pretty deep, but it was about to get deeper. I was at PK, so I didn't see much of the game, but I got home and turned it on to see the score. Cards were up 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh, but Houston had a runner on. Knowing that it was going to get too stressful for me, I turned it off.

Which probably saved some furniture or at least a remote, because when I flipped it back on, it's 4-2 Houston in the top of the 8th, as I found out later Lance Berkman hit one of those fairly cheap home runs into the short Crawford boxes they have there in Minute Maid Park. The Astros have hit a number of homers into those seats, which would be loud outs in most ballparks.

So again the TV goes off, and it comes back on in the top of the 9th, with an out gone. I can't bear to watch Houston celebrating, so Meron and I flip to another channel and watch something, anything to get my mind off of what is coming.

As we start getting around to go to bed, I decide to go ahead and see if it's a final.

Nope, not yet.

I thrust my arms up in the air as the score shows Cardinals 5, Astros 4 in the bottom of the 9th with one out. What has happened? With all the cameras showing Pujols, I've got a good guess.

After the game is over, I rewind my tape to see just how the 9th played out. The first two Cardinals struck out against Brad Lidge, the dominating Houston closer. Then David Eckstein has the count run to 1-2 against him. The Cardinals were down to their final strike, when it all turned around.

Eckstein slapped a single in the hole between third and short. Next up was Jim Edmonds, who has a history of killing the Astros. I don't know if that was on Lidge's mind, if he was just too fired up, or what, but he didn't really get that close to the strike zone, walking Edmonds on 5 pitches. Which brings up Pujols.

Pujols, as it's been said a number of times, is this generation's Musial. He may be the greatest Cardinal ever when it's done, and he's probably already just second to Stan the Man. And when you know that he's been 0-4 in the game, leaving runners on, you know it's time for him to deliver.

Deliver he did. He didn't hit one of those cheap homers. His ball cleared the Crawford boxes, the regular seats, the train tracks on top of the stadium. If there hadn't been glass to stop it, it would have gone completely out of the stadium, rolling around in the streets of Houston.

One of the great things about this, besides the obvious, was that I knew Pujols would be referencing the Source of his strength and abilities. Which makes me think that it's possible the Lord put him in this situation for a reason.

I'm not saying that God wanted the Cardinals to win. He loves everyone and feels the pain of the Astro fans today as well as the joy of the Cardinal fans. But it put a faithful follower on a national stage, even more than he usually is. Pujols will turn any moment into a moment of witness, especially one as big as this.

And who knows? Maybe a non-baseball fan hears about last night's game and decides to Google Pujols. Maybe he or she stumbles across his Foundation web page. Maybe they click on the button on the front page to read about his faith. And maybe they are stimulated to learn more, to reach out, to accept Christ for themselves. Will that happen? Only God knows. But it's possible.

So Game 6 Wednesday night in St. Louis. If they can beat Roy Oswalt, I feel fairly good about their chances against Roger Clemens in Game 7. It's not over yet!