Pujols admits his patience is wearing thin

MILWAUKEE â€" He made it through 21 games without stating the obvious. But two late-inning plate appearances in Tuesday's 12-inning, 9-8 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers proved too much.

Albert Pujols admitted his patience is wearing thin.

Brewers reliever Salomon Torres paid Pujols the ultimate compliment when he walked the Cardinals' No. 3 hitter on four pitches with the bases loaded in an 8-6 game.

Two innings later, Pujols couldn't take it anymore.

After leading in the count 3-0 against Guillermo Mota, Pujols took a strike, then swung at two low pitches to strike out for only the seventh time this season. "I felt I didn't want to walk, and I took myself out of the strike zone to swing at that pitch," Pujols said. "The 3-0 pitch was a little low. But I tried to push too much. I should've taken my walk. It's something you learn. You press. It's the way the game goes."

The game increasingly steps around Pujols. He has never walked 100 times in a season but now finds himself on pace for 154.

Through Monday, Pujols' six intentional walks led the major leagues. Only Cincinnati Reds left fielder Adam Dunn had more walks overall (22).

The number was partly responsible for Pujols, as of Monday, being the game's on-base king with a .500 on-base percentage, but it also fed his frustration about too few pitches to hit with runners on base.

More than half his walks (11) have come in 26 plate appearances with runners in scoring position.

The wave has allowed Pujols to reach base in each of his team's 21 games. There is precedent for this pace, as Pujols reached in the team's first 35 games in his 2005 MVP season.

Manager Tony La Russa played down the topic before Tuesday's game, "especially when we're six games over .500. If he's scoring runs, he's helping us win games."

Hitting .352 does not help when he is rarely challenged in run-producing situations. "I'm really seeing the ball good. I've really been feeling good at the plate," he said. "I thought last year, when I was pressing at the plate too much the first two months, really helped me out in my career."

"For the most part, Albert has been really good about staying patient," hitting coach Hal McRae said. "They're not going to come at him unless the guys behind him are producing. That's why I believe it takes two guys to protect him, not just one."

In many ways, Pujols represents the team's leading offensive barometer:

The Cardinals went into Tuesday's game 9-1 when Pujols scored, 5-0 when he produced an RBI. Both trends took a hit. (He has yet to drive in runs in more than one game of a series.)

The Brewers last season walked Pujols only six times as he crushed them for a .414 average (24 for 58), four home runs and 14 RBIs. In 2006, the Brewers walked Pujols only seven times as he reached them for a .353 average (18 for 51) with five home runs and 13 RBIs.

Pujols has walked six times in five games this season against Milwaukee, including three times in Monday's 4-3 Cardinals win. That game represented the seventh time in Pujols' seven-year career he was intentionally walked twice in the same game.

Increasingly isolated this season and last, Pujols has adjusted his hitting tendencies. He has swung at a 3-0 pitch five times in 21 games, as many times as in 301 games the previous two seasons.

La Russa is reluctant to dwell on Pujols' protection in the lineup; however, the cleanup spot went into Tuesday's game with a .740 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, little improved over the .706 figure that ranked last in the major leagues last season.

Pujols speaks only about his own struggle.

"One thing I'm thinking about is chasing bad pitches," he said, noting Tuesday's strikeout. "That's probably the worst at-bat I've had in the last 2½ months, including spring training."