ST. LOUIS — After the Cardinals have had five months to define themselves as a winning team unable to win enough to stay relevant in the division race, the most compelling chase in the final weeks isn’t found in the standings.
First baseman Albert Pujols is pursuing the numbers that define his career.
The three-time MVP had two hits and an RBI as the Cardinals rallied, added on and then held on for a 6-4 victory Saturday against the Cincinnati Reds at Busch Stadium. The hits raised his average to .296 — the highest it’s been after a game at any point this season — and the RBI put him 15 shy of 100. With 23 games remaining, Pujols is within reach of the statistics that stack uniformly on his baseball card, the ones that fit him like a Social Security number: 30 homers, 100 RBIs and .300 average.
“It’s been a long year for everybody, as a ball club and for myself,” said Pujols, who started his career with 10 consecutive seasons of 30-100-.300 consistency. “It’s never pretty. This game is not easy. . . . I don’t think you play for individual numbers. If you play for the ball club the numbers are going to take care of themselves. Hopefully I can continue to swing the bat the way I’ve been swinging over the last four days.
“It will be pretty interesting.”
With the win the Cardinals (74-65) kept pace with the first-place Milwaukee Brewers, who hold an 8 1/2-game lead in the NL Central. Pujols insisted that the race isn’t over until the final out, though he and the Cardinals recognize the odds have faded from their favor.
That leaves validating the team as a 90-win club and reaching significant personal milestones that can be a measure of the final weeks. Lance Berkman has his 30th homer in his pocket; Matt Holliday has his sixth consecutive 20-homer season. With a win Saturday after six solid innings, Jaime Garcia (11-7) is two shy of tying the 13 he had as a rookie. Skip Schumaker’s two hits Saturday moved him to a .300 average. Berkman’s 83rd RBIs puts him close to his first 100-RBI season since 2008. And then there are Pujols’ digits.
“The good thing about somebody pursuing an individual goal is it means they’re motivated and they don’t back off the effort,” manager Tony La Russa said. “The thing you have to be careful about is the distractions. I’ve seen guys get to 95 RBIs with a week to go and all of a sudden they go up there and they forget to just have a good at-bat, get a good pitch. Numbers count. They try to force it and they end up with 97 and they’ve thrown at-bats away. Motivation to do something for yourself is fine. You can’t let it distract you.”
Distraction has been a recurring battle for Garcia.
The young lefty has allowed innings to snowball on him multiple times in the second half of this season. He neared tilt in the first inning Saturday by allowing base hits to the first two batters and falling immediately down 1-0. He struck out the next three batters to regain traction. Each of his first three innings threatened to mushroom, but he found a way to defuse each one.
“I had a situation with (runners on) first and second and it could have gotten ugly,” Garcia said. “But I was able to keep us in there.”
Garcia won for the first time since July 23, and catcher Gerald Laird said he did it by remaining poised and adapting. Instead of reaching for the corners of the strike zone, Garcia let the movement on his fastball work for him, and that got him ahead in the count. He retired 10 of his final 12 batters. When runners got on base, Laird trotted out to remind Garcia to “stay in rhythm, slow down, stay in the (strike) zone.”
Laird provided comfort behind the plate and provided a lead at the plate. After the Reds had taken a 2-0 lead, Laird worked a seven-pitch at-bat to stroke a line-drive RBI single in the second inning. Reds outfielder Chris Heisey misplayed the hit, allowing the Cardinals to tie the game. Laird scored on Garcia’s RBI single to take a lead Garcia didn’t relinquish.
Jon Jay scored two runs as the Cardinals added on, and the trio of Cardinals middle-order hitters — Pujols, Holliday and Berkman — each contributed an RBI. Jason Motte completed the five-out save to clinch the win.
“We were able to take advantage of the mistakes that they made,” Pujols said. “Right now, I’m trusting my hands the way that I know how to hit. I wish that would have happened in April or May. . . . I drove the ball with authority, and that’s me. Do I want to be able to do that every day? Yeah, I do. But that’s impossible.”
Pujols had a .262 average on June 1, and all his signature numbers lagged behind. In his previous 21 games, he’s hit .400, slugged .707 and popped seven homers to reach 34 for the season. He pointed to the 16 walks in that span as significant; that’s more free passes in 21 games than he had in June and July combined.
Though he is aware of the numbers, Pujols insisted he wouldn’t look at his individual numbers until the end of the season. Then he’ll see if they’re recognizable.
At least now, he recognizes the individual.
“If I would have taken my walks, maybe the numbers would have been there a long time ago,” Pujols said. “I wasn’t feeling comfortable at the plate. I was trying to figure out things. I think maybe that taught me something. You have to learn. . . . If I was another kind of player and let the mind take control of everything, I probably wouldn’t dig out of the hole that I was in.”
