The Great One

By Cardinal 70

With the great ones, you just know. You just know when they are going to do something to win the game.

Albert Pujols, in case anyone reading was wondering, counts as one of the great ones.

I've noted before when it was just obvious he was going to hit a home run. Last night was another one of those situations. Seeing the lead that Pujols was getting off second and how long it was going to take the Rockies to field that grounder, I said to myself, "He's going to go home."

Now, granted, you can't be sure he's going to make it home. We love Albert, but occasionally he gets crazy on the basepaths with his aggressiveness. That said, he sometimes makes the wrong choice in his desire to win. Not last night, though, as he seemed to totally shock the Rockies with his mad dash. I mean, it's no Slaughter, but it's pretty good nonetheless.

There's our Hero. The Goat tag has to settle on Chris Duncan, who had about the worst birthday you could imagine. If the Cards hadn't played a night game on Sunday and then had to travel, I might suggest that he had his celebration already. Two errors to give a lead back to the Rockies plus an 0-4, 2 K day is close to the definition of Goat.

Today's matchup is Braden Looper vs. Mark Redman. Looper hasn't faced the Rockies much--another case where no one has 10 ABs against the Cardinal hurler--but he's shut them down when he has faced them. He'll need to be very careful with Todd Helton, though, who has 2 home runs in 7 ABs against him, though the last of those was in 2003.

Redman has a few more data points in his report against Cardinal batters. Troy Glaus might be looking forward to this, as he's put up a solid average in 21 AB. And Albert Pujols has a homer and a .455 average in the 11 ABs he's had against Redman.

Cards push their lead to 2.5 games and, with a win tonight, can go 10 games over .500. If last night proved anything, it's that this team will play a hard nine and never give up, not even on the road. We'll see if there are more dramatics needed tonight. If so, there's a good chance the great one will step up again.