San Diego – Just as St. Louis slugger Albert Pujols was digging in at the plate Tuesday, a misguided Padres fan could be heard from his seat high up in Petco Park.
That’s where the middle-aged man, clad in a brown-and-yellow Padres jersey from days gone by, was screaming “Overrated!” He drew a couple of high-fives, as well as a few chuckles, from fans around him.
Moments later, Pujols crushed a 3-2 pitch from Padres pitcher Jake Peavy for a two-run, fourth- inning homer. The homer broke up a duel between Peavy and Chris Carpenter, sparking the Cardinals to a 5-1 win in Game 1 of the National League playoff series.
“That was tough, no doubt,” Peavy said. “It was game-changing.”
Pujols’ homer came four pitches after Padres catcher Mike Piazza failed to snare Pujols’ foul ball against the backstop. Pujols, who hit .331 with 49 homers and 137 RBIs in the regular season, clobbered his second chance 422 feet, clearing the center-field fence on a line.
“You’re talking about one of the best hitters in the game. I mean, ever, in the game,” said San Diego manager Bruce Bochy, who decided not to pitch around Pujols.
Pujols said he didn’t get caught up in what might have been had Piazza hung on. He simply did what he does on a regular basis.
“I don’t worry about things like that, and I don’t think about if they are going to pitch to me, because I just want to be aggressive,” he said. “If they give me a good pitch, I’m going to try and put my best swing on it and hopefully help my team win.”
The Cardinals entered the playoffs in a troubling slump, having lost nine of their last 12 regular-season games. Now they’re in control of the Padres – again. Dating to two division series in 1996 and 2005, they have beaten the Padres seven straight times.
Pujols wasn’t the only Cardinal hushing sold-out Petco Park. Ageless center fielder Jim Edmonds, 36, went 2-for-4 and drove in a run in the Cardinals’ three-run fourth. St. Louis awarded second baseman Ronnie Belliard a game ball after he snuffed out a would-be rally in the seventh. With two out and the bases loaded, Belliard made a diving stop on Todd Walker’s grounder to the hole. Then, throwing from his knees, Belliard got Walker out by an eyelash.
Carpenter baffled the Padres for 6 1/3 innings, giving up one run on five hits and striking out seven. Last year’s NL Cy Young Award winner improved to 3-0 in four postseason starts.
“My stuff was good, my location was good and, yeah, my breaking ball was very good,” Carpenter said. “And sometimes during the game I was able to use it a lot, able to get out of situations with it.”
Such as the fourth inning, when the Padres opened with singles by Dave Roberts and Brian Giles but got nothing when Carpenter struck out Adrian Gonzalez looking on a curve, got Piazza to ground out and struck out Russell Branyan to end the inning.
“He made some big pitches when he had to,” Bochy said. “We did have some chances today, but we just couldn’t get the big hit to put a crooked number on there on the board.”
The Padres were 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left men stranded on third base in the fourth, sixth and eighth innings.
Patrick Saunders can be reached at 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com.
