Albert Pujols Goes Hitless Again, Awful Start Continues
By Tim Ryan
Is it because he forgot how to hit line drives to right field? Does he miss St. Louis barbecue? Is Mike Scioscia’s hair not as inspiring as the great Tony La Russa’s? Is his agent, along with the hired help, not allowing him to sleep? Is this simply what he gets for ditching St. Louis in favor of ripe Orange County tits?
We’ve seen this a million times. A-Rod got off to a slow start in 2004 when he made his Yankees debut, and he ended up settling in just fine; kinda. It would be crazy to think we won’t be seeing the Pujols of old soon enough, but the struggle and ensuing mass panic is somewhat entertaining. The question is, are Cardinals fans — the “greatest fans in the world” — enjoying this or are they sympathetic to what Al B. Sure is going through? I imagine the scorned lovers are loving every second of it.
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In other baseball news…
Yu Darvish blanked the Yankees for 8.1 innings while striking out 10, but that didn’t stop the Yankee captain from going 2-for-4. The man is a machine.
The Reds beat the Giants 9-2 behind seven scoreless innings of four-hit ball from Mat Latos, who continues to struggle with spelling properly. Cincy now sits at 8-9 which, in the comical NL Central, means they’re just 2.5 games out of first place.
The Orioles won their second in a row and find themselves in a four-way tie for first. Yes, that’s a big deal for this franchise. Until they slip under .500, everything they do is a big deal, yet no one cares to talk about them; except for me, right now. Moving on…
In Minnesota, Josh Beckett went six innings and allowed two runs while the Boston bats put up 11 runs. Plus, Beckett yelled at the home plate umpire. Always a good sign when the bloated fella is fired up. Everything is fine with the Sawx.
Jose Reyes returned to Queens! Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post put it best in that Mets fans can’t win with pundits regarding Reyes. They boo, they’re ungrateful; they cheer, they’re naive jackasses.