Pujols left hitless and unimpressed with Glavine
BY BOB HERZOG
Newsday Staff Writer

October 13, 2006

With an expression of scorn and words of disdain, Albert Pujols was defiant in defeat last night.

The Cardinals' slugger, who went 0-for-3 with a walk, flipped his chair into the leg of a reporter gathered at his locker, turned his back, dressed slowly and then faced the media with obvious reluctance.

Asked about the effectiveness of Mets starter Tom Glavine, Pujols, who lined out twice, said, "He wasn't good. I thought we hit the ball hard but we didn't get any breaks."

Pujols struck out on a changeup against Glavine in the first, walked in the fourth, lined out hard to short in the seventh and lined out to first off Billy Wagner leading off the ninth.

Asked what happened in the fourth inning when, after his walk, he misread Juan Encarnacion's fly ball to center and was doubled off first on Carlos Beltran's one-hop throw to Carlos Delgado, Pujols snapped, "Double play."

Asked what he was thinking about on that play, he said, "I didn't think anything."

Asked if he was frustrated, Pujols answered with an incredulous look. "Why get frustrated?" he said. "I can't make a mistake? I'm perfect?"

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said of Pujols' baserunning blunder, "Let me tell you, Albert is an outstanding baserunner and I'm not exaggerating. An outstanding baserunner. Part of it is aggressiveness and, almost always, he mixes in good sense. That was the exception. When he first read it, he read blooper, but the ball hung up in the wind and basically, [it was] a mistake; a rare one for him."

Glavine avoided mistakes against Pujols and said afterwards of his game plan, "I executed the first part real well, which is facing him with nobody on base. He's a great hitter -- to say he's a great hitter is an understatement. He's the best hitter in baseball right now and he's the guy you don't want to beat you."