Strauss: Pujols defends hit-and-run play

This article just cost Pujols…

“I don’t have a problem with that play,” Pujols said during an impromptu news conference at his locker. “I know there was a lot of discussion about ‘If he put the play on why didn’t he swing?’ Look at the pitch. It was high and away and I wouldn’t have been able to touch it. If I would have been able to put the bat on it, I would have swung at the ball.’‘

Pujols called the play on an 0-1 pitch and recognized that flailing at it would have left him in an inferior count.

“You don’t want to be in that situation with a great pitcher on the mound,” he said. “It was one of the things that didn’t go our way. If he had thrown the pitch down, I probably would have put a good swing on it and it would have been a different story.”

...“People can throw rocks and blame Tony or myself,” said Pujols, adding that he has never turned down La Russa’s request for a hit-and-run. “It’s just part of the game. If it had worked out like it had in the past we wouldn’t be talking about this. I can tell you out of those 200 hit-and-runs, believe me, we’ve won a lot of games. This time it didn’t work.”