St. Louis – With one mighty swing of his bat, Albert Pujols snuffed out the Rockies’ mojo Tuesday night.
The Cardinals’ all-star slugger sent reliever Jose Mesa’s 3-2 hanging slider over Busch Stadium’s left-field wall for a three- run homer in the eighth inning to beat the Rockies 4-2, halting their winning streak at four.
With Pujols at the plate, two men on and nobody out, and with the sellout crowd roaring, it was man-to-man time. Pujols, as he has done so often, proved he was the best man.
“He got the best of me,” Mesa said. “He’s a pretty good hitter, but I didn’t get him out today. So he was good today. He was better than me.”
Pujols said he expected nothing less than a direct challenge from the 39-year-old Mesa.
“He’s a veteran guy who trusts his stuff,” Pujols said. “I would love to have him on my team because he knows how to pitch. He’s going to bring his best stuff. That’s how competitive he is. So you have to beat him with your best stuff.”
Pujols’ homer was his 17th of the young season. It came in the Cardinals’ 34th game, tying Pujols with Willie Mays (1964) as the third-fastest to reach 17 homers in major-league history.
Mesa’s eighth-inning trouble began when he gave up a leadoff single to David Eckstein. Then pinch-hitter Juan Encarnacion drilled a single off Mesa’s foot.
That set the stage for Pujols’ heroics.
The National League’s reigning MVP has provided the game- winning RBI in seven of the Cardinals’ past 12 victories, and his 41 RBIs lead the majors.
Rockies manager Clint Hurdle knew how lethal Pujols could be, but Hurdle said he never thought about giving Pujols a free pass to first base.
“We weren’t going to walk him with runners on first and second and load the bases for (Jim) Edmonds,” Hurdle said. “Guys who are thinking about (putting Pujols on) are guys that have no stake in the game.”
The Rockies, who fell to 20-14, didn’t even hint at a rally in the ninth as the Cardinals’ Jason Isringhausen struck out Cory Sullivan, Jamey Carroll and Todd Helton to end the game.
The Rockies’ winning streak appeared alive and well in the seventh when Matt Holliday put them ahead 2-1 with a two- out solo homer to right-center off Chris Carpenter, the National League’s reigning Cy Young Award winner. It was Holliday’s third homer in the past two games and his sixth in May.
The St. Louis rally spoiled a fine performance by Rockies starter Josh Fogg. He pitched seven strong innings, allowing just one run on six hits. He struck out three and walked one.
“I felt good and I was able to locate my fastball well and get ahead of guys today,” said Fogg, who received a no-decision for the third time this season.
Going into Tuesday’s game, Fogg was 1-8 with a 7.95 ERA in 12 games (10 starts) against the Cardinals. He hasn’t beaten them since May 31, 2002. He was well aware of that ugly history, but he said he tried to put that record out of his mind.
“You’ve got to, I mean it was pretty pitiful, so if you go out there thinking about that stuff, you’re going to have another one in the ‘L’ column,” he said.
Staff writer Patrick Saunderscan be reached at 303-820-5459 or psaunders@denverpost.com.
