You gotta feel sorry for Homer Bailey of the Reds. He pitched by far his best game as a big leaguer. He has struggled mightily as he has tried to be a consistent major league pitcher. He went 4-2 two years ago, last year he was 0-6 and this year he was 1-0, but he has never shown his ability to dominate. Last night he did that.
Against a very potent Cardinals offence, they have Pujols, Ludwick, Rasmus, Ankiel and Duncan to name a few, he was great. He pitched 7 1/3 of 3 hit ball and left with a shutout in tact. He did have one out and two on when Dusty Baker pulled him and opted for David Weathers. At that point Bailey led 3-0. Thats when it started to go bad and up came Mr. Grand Slam, Albert Pujols.
Pujols entered last nights game with 3 grand slams on the year and 9 in his career. The count went to 2 balls, 1 strike and I knew what was about to happen. I knew that Bailey was not going to get the win. I knew the Cards would be leading 4-3. I just knew. Why? Because Albert Pujols rarely is unsuccessful when the pressure is clearly on the pitcher.
I wonder if the thought ever went through Baker's mind to just intentionally walk Pujols and allow the one run to score? It wouldn't make sense but... the score would have still been a 3-1 lead. Hindsight is 20-20, but my guess is Baker had a feeling too.
Sure enough Pujols did hit another grand slam, the 4th time this year. He has reached the halfway to 700 mark as the third youngest ever. He is only behind A Roid, and Griffey Jr. I think there are lots of HR's left in his bat and I wouldn't be surprised at all to see him hit 20 slams.
This night marked the return of Manny. Thankfully he went a solid 0 for 3. Welcome back cheater!
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