Pujols Hits Three Homers, Cardinals Bludgeon Rangers, 16-7

The St. Louis Cardinals hammered the Texas Rangers in Game 3 of the World Series on Saturday night to take a 2-1 series lead. Albert Pujols was incredibly, the Cardinals offense was on fire and Texas could do little to stop it. So much for all the close games in this series so far.

While we probably can’t point to this one play as the beginning of the end, it does illustrate yet another point about the umpires. On baseball’s biggest stage, the following happened in the fourth inning:

Today’s Visual Box Score recaps Saturday night’s Game 3 win for the Cardinals, highlighting the game’s heroes and goats in graphic (and sometimes gory) detail. The sizes of the players’ names represent each player’s contribution to win expectancy, with white indicating positive contribution and red indicating negative contribution. Click on the images for a closer look!

Clearly out. Yes? Umpire Ron Kulpa didn’t think so. Instead of a double play, Holliday wound up on base, and everything else that happened happened. The Cardinals scored four runs in the inning and won big. What happens if Kulpa gets that call right? I don’t know, but the Cardinals probably don’t score four runs in the inning. So much changes. Probably everything changes. Maybe the game’s close. Maybe the Rangers win. Who knows! Bad calls change paths, and once you go down one path, the trip is irreversible.

The big blow? Ogando faced Albert Pujols with two guys on. He wanted to throw this pitch:

You could almost see it coming.

Or not.

This week’s, Wait, Yeah! award goes to Joel Sherman, who twote:

Anyone have any idea why Washington has not removed gimpy Hamilton from this game yetTo which the only response is: “Wait, yeah!” At least if you weren’t already thinking it, that’s the only response. Is there any reason for Hamilton’s barking groin to be in center field, chasing down any fly balls hit in his direction? Remember, Hamilton thinks he might have a sports hernia. It’s not like he’s fighting though a stye.

Well, I’m just guessing that he was an effete European because he threw like this:

Not to engage in stereotypes, but Europeans are better at kicking things. There’s no way that a red-blooded ‘Merican -- especially one from Texas, where they inject steaks into their arteries with hypodermic needles -- could throw like that.

Because La Russa clearly isn’t going to use Westbrook when the Cardinals are ahead, no matter by how much.

Let’s think about this ... Heading into the bottom of the seventh inning, you’re ahead by eight runs. You’ve got two more games in the next 48 hours, and your No. 4 starter is pitching the first of them. Both games will be played in one of the game’s friendliest places for hitters. There is every indication that you’ll need your best relief pitchers to give you some good innings, in these next 48 hours.

Mike Gonzalez was so danged close to baseball history. So danged close. With two outs in the seventh inning, he could have tied the all-time World Series record for fewest runs allowed in an inning. It would have been an oasis of brilliant pitching in the middle of a bog of runs and offense and runs.

Then Albert Pujols had to spoil it all by hitting another bazillion-foot home run, this one to left-center field. So greedy, that Pujols.

Well, through the first five innings Saturday night, there was a total of 14 runs scored. And the Cardinals only added on more in the top of the sixth.

Slamma-lamma ding-dong!

Fernando Salas certainly wasn’t the answer. Maybe Lance Lynn is.

The Cardinals went ahead 8-3 in the top of the fifth; the Rangers made it 8-6 in the bottom of the fifth.

Good, right? Five scoreless appearances, with five total baserunners allowed. That’s straight up Rivera-ian, except Feldman was handling a couple innings at a time.

No further damage was done, but while Rangers Ballpark is a hitter’s ballpark, that was a demoralizing frame for the hosts.

1. Play first base

2. Run

Not even close.

Entering the fourth inning of Game 3, the starting pitchers for both teams had combined for a sub-2.00 ERA in the World Series, threatening to completely turn around the trend that we saw in the League Championship Series.

It’s always tough to be hyper-critical of umpires. It’s easy to be critical after watching a few slow-motion replays, but things happen pretty quickly down at field level. They do the best they can, dang it.

But this was an unbelievably awful call:

Harrison gave up the early home run from Craig, but he’s been in command since then, striking out three without allowing a walk.

If I had to guess which pitcher will leave the game with fewer runs allowed? Harrison. But which pitcher has allowed fewer runs through three innings? Lohse. Baseball’s silly like that.

Meanwhile, there was at least one moment of oddness in the bottom of the second, when Joe Buck described Michael Young as “the ultimate team player”.

I won’t argue that Young isn’t a team player; he is a player, on a team. But has Buck really forgotten that Young has thrown huge public fits twice? First upon being moved from shortstop to third base, and next upon being moved from third base to a super-utlility role?

But this isn’t:

The definition of “finesse” that Baseball Reference uses is pitchers who are in the bottom third of the league in strikeouts plus walks. That’s good news for the Rangers against Lohse! The bad news: Lohse threw like a power pitcher in the first inning:

In Game 1 of the 2011 World Series, the Cardinals hit zero home runs. In Game 2, they hit zero home runs.

Harrison missed, but Craig didn’t, and the Cardinals’ early top candidate for World Series MVP gave St. Louis a quick 1-0 lead.

Let’s use PlayerShaper to compare tonight’s Game 3 starters. For pitchers, PlayerShaper looks at innings per start, walks allowed, strikeouts, and ground-ball percentage. PlayerShaper highlights control as Kyle Lohse’s strength, while Matt Harrison thrives by generating ground-ball outs. Click on the image for a closer look!

It’s supposed to be that the American League teams are the ones that benefit from playing at home in the World Series, at least when it comes to constructing a lineup. They’re the ones who need a DH for most of the 162 regular season games, whereas the National League teams have to scramble and make do to fill a position they don’t have to usually think about.

It’s not the best defensive lineup the Rangers can put out there -- not as long as Josh Hamilton is roaming center with his trick groin -- but it’s not bad at all. Napoli is at first instead of catching, Torrealba is behind the plate, and Michael Young gets to field at his best defensive position, DH.

Start time: 8:05 p.m. EDT

TV coverage: FOX