Albert Pujols, a day after breaking the record for homeruns in April, wasn’t given much of a chance to add to his record today. He was walked 4 times by Nats’ pitchers. In the bottom of the first, they pitched to him. He grounded into a double play.
Near as I can tell from reports (I didn’t see the game), they weren’t straight-out intentional walks. My guess is that Nats pitchers didn’t give him much to hit (someone can correct me if I’m wrong).
Diamond Jim Edmonds on the whole issue (from a USA Today article):
”Eventually you have to come through,” he said. ”If they want to walk Albert all year long, I’ll be happy to hit behind him.”
That’s a positive spin on the whole walking-Pujols thing. But quite honestly, folks don’t pay the ticket prices or watch the TV to see Pujols walked. Let’s just not get caught up in the “walk the current big slugger no matter what”.
Now that Bonds, whose walk totals reached embarrassing records, has faded out of the picture slightly, let’s not replace him with Pujols.