After this Astros series there are little questions about Albert Pujols shoulder.  He is fine!  Here are his latest numbers on the 2008 season:

• .379 average
• 2 HR and 4 RBI
• .526 OBP
• 9 BB to just 2 K’s

Up next is San Francisco.  Albert has hit alright against them over his career:

• .301 average with 5 HR’s and 22 RBI’s

I’m going to officially nominate Brandon Backe for Cardinals MVP now. What a fool. So if you hadn’t heard, before last nights game in batting practice, Backe and Pujols had a little ‘confrontation’ regarding the play at the plate from the game before. Backe apparently is not a member of the Albert Pujols Club,

“[I was] coming off the field and he approached me,” Backe said. “I don’t know. It’s apparent that we don’t like each other. That’s OK. There’s plenty of people I don’t like in this game. It doesn’t matter. It’s baseball. It’s the way it goes. The competition between he and I just escalated and it’s OK. It’s no big deal. This is what makes it fun.”

Competition? What competition? Albert is 3-10 lifetime off of Backe with 3 HR’s and 3 Walks… Albert owns you Brandon.

So everyone in sports knows that the worst thing you can do to a “superstar” of Albert’s caliber is fire him up. He awoke the sleeping giant. Pujols looked to be on a mission the entire game and drilled 2 bombs in the final few innings. They were no doubters. The Astros bullpen is thanking Brandon Backe I’m sure. Take a look at this slide, looks clean to me.

Ok, so moving on. Albert and the Cardinals improve to 7-2 and in 1st place in the Central. Pujols now is on pace for another career year. Keep on hitting AP! What are the odds that this little “situation” isn’t over.

An hour from game time tonight. I know we are all pumped. Yesterday was opening day- it was washed out. So now we get a chance to see more baseball tonight. Let’s hope Kyle Lohse has some good stuff tonight. It’d be nice to get off to a 1-0 start. Our man Albert Pujols is ready for his old buddy Kipster Wells. Albert always seems to mash mediocre pitchers such as the Kipster. Good luck Albert and the Cardinals!