Cardinals comment on Dickey's dancing knuckleball

After going hitless today, Albert Pujols is 0-for-6 lifetime against Dickey: “He was mixing his pitchers pretty well. He threw strikes and kept us off balance. It’s not easy to hit a knuckle.”

Pujols on the Cardinals failed approach against Dickey: “Make sure the ball is up and to put a good swing. That's it. And it didn’t work. Like I said, he kept us off balance and that’s why he did pretty well today.”

When asked if it was frustrating when Dickey started him off with a fastball and then struck him out on a high knuckleball in his first at-bat, Pujols said in zen-like fashion: “There’s no such thing as frustration. This is part of the game. Part of the game that you move on.”

Rookie outfielder Jon Jay went 1-3, with a double in the first: “He was on today. His knuckleball was anywhere from 72 to 83 [mph]. He did a heck of a job of keeping us off balance. He really pitched a good game today.”

“He’s different," said Jay, who has seen only a few knuckleballers in his young career. "Most knuckleballs are moving slower. His [knuckleball] is hard. It’s almost like a hard split-finger type of thing. He was on today and you’ve got to tip your cap to him ... That’s the best knuckleball I’ve ever seen. He was making it move however he wanted. You could tell he knew what he was doing out there.”

Ryan Ludwick went 1-3, with a single in the fifth: “Anytime you face a knuckleballer it’s a challenge because you don’t see a lot of them. He had good movement on the ball. Every once in a while you’d think you’d square it up and it’d have late movement. He pitched a good game.”

Ludwick was most impressed with Dickey's control: “He actually threw a lot of strikes with it,” he said surprised. “He wasn’t walking a whole lot or hitting batters. He was in and around the zone and he was tough today.”