This morning all is right with the St. Louis Cardinals world: They beat the Cincinnati Reds to take sole possession of first place in the National League Central, and they did it with Albert Pujols driving in two of the team's four runs—one of them on a picture-perfect RBI single to the opposite field. If he was pressing at the beginning of the season, because of the contract stuff or any other reason, he isn't now. Since the bottom of his so-called slump, in fact, when his OPS fell all the way to .447, he's hit .350/.422/.750.
↵That's 10 full games since it last seemed like he was unable to do anything except glower, limp on the basepaths, and ground into double plays.
↵It says something about the transitory nature of baseball slumps, but also about Cardinals fans' relationship with Albert Pujols. With a lot of players, fans are impatient because they don't like them very much; every Ray Lankford slump, for instance, meant he was done forever. With Albert Pujols, fans are impatient because they're terrified of the day when he won't be Albert Pujols.
↵It wasn't yesterday, and it looks like it won't be for a while yet.
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