mulder trachsel
4-1, 4.27 2-3, 4.91
The New King of Baseball -- so proclaims si.com, speaking about albert pujols. thanks to reader Busch League for pointing this out; half a dozen adoring articles, some (all?) of which presumably will grace the print edition. i haven't read 'em as yet, but they sound like a treat.
elsewhere, briefly:
- brad lidge thinks he is back on track and has former stl fave joe mcewing to thank. super joe explained that lidge was tipping his pitches, so the coaching staff corrected the flaw in his delivery -- and he has had two perfect one-inning stints since. i'll have to see a few more good outings before i'm ready to believe the fix is that simple . . . .
- the already pitching-thin dbacks may be looking for a starter -- el duque left last night's game with an injury. nature and severity of the ailment unspecified; they think it's his rib cage, but then it might be his knee (???) . . . . he was supposed to see his doctor today. if he goes down, perhaps the dbacks (currently in 1st place) become that much more interested in marquis or suppan, in both of whom they reportedly expressed interest last december. they're an ideal trading partner for st louis: a team that needs an inning-eating pitcher, has a surplus of outfielders, and is in contention this season (only a current-year contender is going to have any use for pending free-agents marquis and suppan).