ARLINGTON, Texas – By the end, by the top of the ninth inning, everyone had settled into their roles. Playing the part of Charlie Hough – the veteran pitcher, now a patsy, a foil – was Darren Oliver. And easing into the batter’s box, playing the right-handed mirror-image of Reggie Jackson, was Albert Pujols.
If you remember that last Reggie at-bat the night of Oct. 18, 1977, you remember the inevitability of what soon followed. He had already taken Burt Hooten and Elias Sosa deep. Now he stepped in against Hough, and that silly little knuckleball of his, and he crushed that knuckler like it owed him money, deep into The Black at old Yankee Stadium. You can’t always predict baseball; you could’ve predicted that.
And you could’ve predicted this: Pujols walking to the plate in the top of the ninth, the Cardinals up by a touchdown and a two-point conversion already. If this were an MMA match, the Rangers would’ve already tapped out. Pujols had already hit 855 feet worth of home runs, one that had extended an 8-6 lead to 11-6, the other a finishing blast to steal the last of the Rangers’ will.
Or so you thought. Because Pujols had one more at-bat in him.
One more swing in him.
And you knew what was coming. Of course you did. Oliver, soft-tossing lefty, lobbed one in. Pujols took that perfect, pretty swing of his. And 397 feet later, the baseball was landing in a place that only Reggie Jackson and Babe Ruth had ever visited, Ruth doing it twice, both times against the Cardinals, 1926 and 1928.
Quite an exclusive neighborhood, that.
“It’s very special,” Pujols said later, after his final blast dropped a Super Bowl III on the Rangers, a 16-7 win that nudged them a game up on the Rangers, two games away from the 11th world championship in the Cardinals’ rich history. “Those guys were great players, and to do that at this level and this stage is amazing to me.
“At the same time, I didn’t walk into the ballpark thinking I’d have a night like this. I just wanted to help this ballclub win. And I was able to do that.”
Yes. He was able to do that. Two days after serving as a co-conspirator in the ninth-inning meltdown that halted the Cardinals’ astounding late-season momentum and silenced St. Louis’ giddiness, he took advantage of quintessential Rangers Ballpark winds that roar straight in from centerfield, ricochet off the suites behind home plate and carry anything with some oomph as far as they’re willing to go.
Sixth inning, an Alexi Ogando fastball up: 431 feet.
Seventh inning, a Mike Gonzalez fastball middle in: 424 feet.
And then Oliver, mopping up the ninth, throwing up a room-service cutter that might as well have been one of the meatballs that Jose Cano served his son during the home-run derby in Phoenix in July, might as well have been one of those Coop-a-Loop lobs that Magic Johnson used to feed Michael Cooper during Showtime.
“I’d wondered if maybe Tony [La Russa] would want to give [Gerald] Laird an at-bat, let him play first base in the ninth inning,” Pujols said. “But I knew he probably wouldn’t.”
Of course he wouldn’t. On a night when La Russa himself stepped past Bobby Cox in the record books, second behind Joe Torre in postseason victories as a manager, he wasn’t about to dim the spotlight on his favorite player. He knew what he might see. Are you kidding? He knew.
“A couple of times in the dugout, in the middle of the game, somebody kept saying this is a day we’ll never forget, and that’s what we got,” La Russa. That’s just the latest example of how great he is. You saw it tonight.”
How great? They’ve only been playing the World Series for 107 years; Pujols is the first player ever to collect five hits, six RBIs and three homers in the same game. His 14 total bases was a Series record. At a time when it looked like the Rangers were eager to engage in a Slo-Pitch slugfest with the Cardinals, Pujols made it clear they hadn’t a prayer of keeping up. Who could have?
Two other men. One retired in 1935, the other in 1987. Hell of a neighborhood.
Michael.vaccaro@nypost.com