Crawford Has 4 Hits Again as Boston Chases Yanks; Albert Pujols Seems to Be OK

Players of the Day for Saturday, June 4, 2011

American League

Carl Crawford

Carl Crawford was up to his old tricks again Saturday in Oakland, getting four hits for the third time in his last ten games.

Crawford and the Red Sox topped Oakland in 14 innings, 9-8, to pull to within one game of first place in the AL East, currently occupied by the NY Yankees.

It took Crawford until the 5th inning to get going, but after that, there was no stopping him. He singled, stole second and scored on a J.D. Drew single in the 5th, singled home a run in the 6th, and doubled in two more in the 8th.

The two teams battled into extras, but, with two outs in the bottom of the 14th, Crawford raked his second double of the day and came around to score the game winner, again off the bat of J.D. Drew.

Crawford finished 4-for-5, with two runs, three RBI a steal and the second win over Oakland in the series. The Red Sox will be looking for the sweep Sunday afternoon.

National League

Albert Pujols
A pretty good player

Albert Pujols must have heard or read the whining of some worried St. Louis fans and writers who thought he wasn't producing the same way he normally does, because all of a sudden, there's no good reason to pitch to the three time NL MVP - unless you like losing, that is.

On May 29 - just six games ago - Pujols was batting .257, with just 8 homers and 28 RBI, well off his usual pace and that of the leaders in each of the categories.

After Saturday's 3-for-4, two home run performance, his numbers all of a sudden look a lot better: .275, 12 homers, 37 RBI. My, how a week can change things.

Pujols cracked his 11th home run of the season in the 4th inning against the Cubs to stake St. Louis to a 2-0 lead. After the Cubs took a 4-2 lead with four runs in the 6th, Pujols doubled in one run and scored another to tie the game in the bottom of the frame.

Finally, in the 12th, Pujols smacked a lead-off, walk-off game winning homer for the 5-4 victory.

To recap: Two homers, 3-for-4, three runs, four RBI, and, by the way, the Cardinals are still two games in front of the Brewers in the NL Central.

The whiners have been silenced.