On prowl for Pujols solution
DETROIT -- They'd held Alex Rodriguez to a single and no RBIs in their division series against the Yankees. They'd held Frank Thomas of the Athletics hitless in 13 at-bats in the American League Championship Series.
Maybe to the Detroit Tigers, Albert Pujols of the Cardinals was just another slugger they could harness.
That's not the way it played out in Game 1 of the World Series, Pujols hitting a two-run home run in the third inning when Tigers rookie Justin Verlander challenged him with first base open.
Pujols's home run, which immediately followed Chris Duncan's RBI double, widened St. Louis's lead to 4-1 en route to a 7-2 win.
After the game, Tigers manager Jim Leyland said he would "take the bullet" for the decision to pitch to Pujols, and Verlander lamented the changeup he'd left up to Duncan, saying that was the one pitch he'd like back.
Closer Todd Jones, who has limited experience against Pujols but has been scorched by Pujols almost every time -- 5 hits in 6 at-bats, 3 solo home runs, 2 walks -- referred to Pujols as "The Alien."
"None of us fear him. None of us are scared of him, but he's a special player and we have to find a way to contain him," Jones said after Game 1.
Pujols entered Game 2 batting .325 in a dozen postseason games this October, with a team-high three home runs. Yadier Molina, So Taguchi, and Jim Edmonds have two apiece, while Scott Rolen, who took Verlander deep in the second inning, has one.
Pujols was 0 for 3 last night with a walk in the Tigers' 3-1 victory over the Cardinals.
Leyland, widely second-guessed for his decision to pitch to Pujols in Game 1, was asked if he'd had second thoughts.
"It's the third inning of the ballgame, and to me, if he gets a base hit there, it's 2-1 [actually, it already was 2-1]. You have to hit one out, which he obviously did. That wasn't supposed to happen. But like I said, I'll take responsibility for that.
"In the third inning of the ballgame . . . we struck him out the first time up. We thought if we did what we were trying to do, and if we walked him, that would be OK. Obviously, that didn't happen."
In other words, Verlander was supposed to have pitched around Pujols, and didn't.
"I have no problem with Justin Verlander in that situation," Leyland said. "The manager takes that responsibility. I take it and I accept it and it's one of those things where people can have a field day with, and go for it."
Pujols, who led the National League in intentional walks in 2005 with 27, drew 28 free passes last season, third behind Barry Bonds (38) and Ryan Howard (37). He began the night with a team-leading nine walks, four intentional, in the postseason.
Tigers third baseman Brandon Inge played with Pujols in the Arizona Fall League six years ago.
"He impressed me there and hasn't stopped impressing me since," Inge said. "It's a fine line. You get to a World Series atmosphere, you got Albert Pujols at the plate, everyone wants to strike him out. Some adrenaline is probably going to take over.
"The problem is, if you make a mistake with him, you're not going to get it back."
The Tigers became just the second team in the last 40 seasons to make three errors in an inning in a Series game when they made three in the sixth of Game 1. Leyland was at the first game, too. In 1997, when he was managing the Marlins, the Indians made three errors in a seven-run ninth inning and lost, 14-11, to the Marlins, in Game 3 of that Series.
Inge was charged with two errors on one play, throwing wildly to the plate on Juan Encarnacion's ground ball, then colliding with base runner Rolen as he attempted to score, for which Inge was judged guilty of obstruction, which goes in the books as an error.
Inge said he hasn't watched replays of the play, nor does he intend to.
"It was a bad hop," Inge said. "Actually, the play would have been fine had the ball probably not hit and hopped up and then came back down. By the time that it hit my glove and went up and wasted that amount of time to get back down, it made me rush to get a grip, and I didn't get a good grip.
"Had the ball maybe hit me in the chest and dropped straight down, I had plenty of time to get a good grip and make a good throw home, and we probably would have had time to get [Edmonds]. But it didn't happen that way."
Several Tigers, including Sean Casey, suggested Rolen may have deliberately run into Inge, who had his back to the runner as he came around third.
"To be honest," Inge said, "I think he was trying to get out of my way a little bit, too. I didn't see the play. I've heard different stories. It could have been [deliberate].
"Either way, it was a smart play on his part, if he thought he was going to be out and ran for me."
Leave it to Red Sox public relations director John Blake, who is working the Series, to come up with this note on Craig Monroe, who has homered in each of the first two games of this Series. Including Monroe, players with seven surnames of US presidents have hit World Series home runs: James Monroe (Craig), Andrew Jackson (Joe and Reggie), Ulysses S. Grant (Jim), John F. Kennedy (Terry), Andrew/Lyndon Johnson (Lou, 2, and Charles); Gerald Ford (Dan); and Jimmy Carter (Joe, 4, and Gary, 2).
Gordon Edes can be reached at edes@globe.com 
