Rangers won't let Pujols beat them again

ST. LOUIS -- If Ron Washington is to be believed, Albert Pujols should consider leaving his bat in the dugout for Wednesday night's Game 6 at Busch Stadium. The Texas manager, with his Rangers on the brink of the franchise's first World Series title, is not going to allow Pujols to pull off an encore of last Saturday's historic three-homer, six-RBI night.

Washington issued three intentional passes to Pujols in Monday's Game 5 -- twice with runners in scoring position and once with no one on -- and walked away with a 4-2 win. It's something that he won't hesitate to do again Wednesday, either.

"I don't think any manager, when the games are dwindling down . . . will allow Albert to swing the bat to beat you," Washington said. "That's not taking anything away from Holliday or Berkman because we know what they're capable of doing. But we're just not going to let Albert do it."

The Rangers' pitching staff had the second-fewest intentional walks (24) in the American League; the Red Sox were at the bottom of that list with 11. As for Pujols, he was sixth on the NL list with 16 intentional passes, tied with the Reds' Joey Votto. The Brewers' Prince Fielder led the league with 32.

"If I'm in the record books for issuing intentional walks, it's because one guy is Albert Pujols and one guy is Miguel Cabrera," Washington said. "I've never seen Albert Pujols before other than on TV. It's my first time seeing him, and what he did [Saturday] night, no, I wouldn't mess with that."

Pujols had the best all-around offensive night in the history of the World Series in Game 3 with a record 14 total bases -- something that Babe Ruth even failed to do. But Pujols went 0-for-4 in Game 4, thanks in part to the mastery of Derek Holland, and the Cardinals failed to capitalize on those three walks in Game 5.

Matt Holliday, hitting behind Pujols, stranded a total of five runners by bouncing into a double play in the third inning and grounding out with the bases loaded in the fifth. The Rangers nearly got burned after intentionally walking Pujols in the seventh with two outs after a failed hit-and-run resulted in Allen Craig getting thrown out at second. Holliday singled Pujols to third, but after another intentional walk to Lance Berkman, David Freese flew out.

"I do a lot by my gut," Washington said. "It's just the flow of the game -- and I'm in the flow of the game."