ARLINGTON, Texas -- We got through the traffic for the 3:15 Cowboys-St. Louis game and have made it to Rangers Ballpark for Game Four of the World Series. Naturally, most of the pregame talk continues to center around Albert Pujols.
Memo to the Rangers: Stop pitching to him! Let someone else beat you.
"He's a monster but he's a gentleman," Texas manager Ron Washington said during his pregame meeting with reporters. "He has awareness. He gives credit to his teammates. He's a monster."
The Rangers are playing Mitch Moreland, a much better defensive player at first base tonight. Mike Napoli, who made the key two-run error last night, is back at catcher and Michael Young is the DH.
Coming up in the interview room are Cardinals manager Tony La Russa and Game Five starter Chris Carpenter, MLB operations director Joe Torre (imagine Ron Kulpa's blown call may come up?) and a press conference later this evening where Ken Griffey Jr. will be presented with the Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award.
Speaking of achievements, MLB research did a little more overnight on Pujols' monster game and came up with this nugget: It's just the 12th time in history -- and the first time ever in the postseason -- a player totaled five hits with at least three home runs, four runs scored and six RBIs.
It's only been done four times in the last 35 years -- by California's Dave Winfield in 1991, Los Angeles' Shawn Green in 2002 (in his four-homer game at Milwaukee) and Colorado's Shea Hillenbrand in 2003. Crazy.
---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)
