Power outage: Albert Pujols, Cardinals can’t capitalize on scoring chances in Game 1 loss

Pujols and punchless Cards can’t cash in chances

LOS ANGELES — Albert Pujols spent his biggest moments of the St. Louis Cardinals’ playoff opener with his bat sitting idly on his shoulder, thanks to some canny managing by Joe Torre.

And with St. Louis ace Chris Carpenter decidedly off his game, Pujols and the rest of the Cardinals wasted a staggering number of chances to help him out.

St. Louis stranded 14 runners in Los Angeles’ 5-3 victory Wednesday night, repeatedly failing to come through against the Dodgers’ six pitchers.

“We definitely had our opportunities, and we couldn’t take advantage of them,” said Ryan Ludwick, who left the bases loaded in the fourth inning — right after hitting a drive that landed about an inch shy of becoming an extra-base hit. “We’ve just got to keep battling. Carp didn’t pitch that bad, in my opinion. We just didn’t score enough runs for him.”

While both teams missed numerous opportunities in a game that set the division series record for total runners left on base by the sixth inning, St. Louis’ failures were more untimely and more thoroughly distributed throughout the lineup.

A different Cardinals player ended each of the first seven innings, all but once with runners on base. In addition to Ludwick’s failure, Yadier Molina, Brendan Ryan, Mark DeRosa and pinch-hitter Troy Glaus each stranded two runners apiece.

Pujols, the NL leader in homers and runs scored in his latest MVP-caliber season, went 0 for 3. He was walked intentionally in the first and fourth innings by Torre, who chose to pitch to slugger Matt Holliday with multiple runners on base.

Both times, the decision worked splendidly for the Dodgers and their veteran manager, who claimed his strategy was born from fear.

“Albert is very special,” Torre said. “You see him every single day. He just scares the hell out of me. … He’s lethal, and he’s so calm about it, too. That’s what irritates the opposition.”

Pujols received 44 intentional walks in the regular season, twice as many as second-place Adrian Gonzalez of San Diego. Few of those passes worked as well as Torre’s decisions.

Holliday energized the Cardinals when he arrived in a midseason trade with Oakland, but he struck out looking after Pujols’ first intentional pass with the bases loaded and nobody out. Moments later, Molina hit into a double play.

“That was a chance to silence the crowd, steal some momentum, and it didn’t work out,” Ryan said. “We had a chance to blow the game open.”

Torre didn’t hesitate to issue Pujols’ second walk, which made him the go-ahead run in the fourth. Holliday then was hit by starter Randy Wolf’s last pitch to load the bases — but right after Ludwick’s shot down the left-field line curved foul by a sliver, he grounded out against Jeff Weaver.

“I wish that ball would have been about an inch-and-a-half further to the right, but that’s why it’s called a game of inches,” Ludwick said.

Pujols got his only chance to hit with a runner on base in the eighth, when Skip Schumaker was on first. After Torre replaced George Sherrill with closer Jonathan Broxton, Pujols worked the count, but grounded out to third.

Such offensive woes have been a looming possibility for the Cardinals ever since they scored three runs or fewer in 12 of their 17 games to close September. Although St. Louis headed into the playoffs with four straight higher-scoring games in October, the Cardinals managed far too few timely hits in Game 1. All four of their extra-base hits were doubles.

St. Louis’ unimpressive finish to the regular season was largely due to its offense, which batted .276 in September. Although Pujols finished strong, few of his teammates were consistent going into the postseason.

The Cardinals also batted just .234 against left-handed pitching this season, a factor in Torre’s decision to award the series’ first two starts to Wolf and youngster Clayton Kershaw, both lefties making their first postseason starts.