The Game Looks Easy But

Edwin Encarnacion found out the hard way. He had a broken wrist that put him out of action since April 28. It was the first time that he had an injury that kept him out of action for an extended period of time.

While he worked out with cardio exercises until he healed well enough to swing the bat, he was forced to watch his teammates from the dugout and on TV.

"The hardest thing was watching my teammates play. I found the game looks so easy from the bench or on TV. I can now understand why fans think everyone should be able to get a hit any time they want to," Encarnacion told reporters before the St. Louis Cardinals came off the mat to win 7-4 over the Reds.

Even the great Albert Pujols struggled until he was able to reach David Weathers for his fourth grand slam of the season and a record setting 10th of his career. Both were records held by Hall of Famer, Stan Musial.

Pujols was 0-for-3 until then.

Homer Bailey struck him out in the first inning with two runners on and no outs. After that Bailey made it look easy. Starting with Pujols, Bailey retired 12 straight batters until he hit Joe Thurston with a pitch in the fifth inning. He retired seven more in a row while his teammates constructed a modest 3-0 lead.

"Homer Bailey threw an unbelievable game," Pujols said. "He has electric stuff. He is going to be around for a long time."

Bailey tired after Cody Rasmus led off the ninth with the Cardinals third hit, a ground single to right. After getting Bredon Ryan to fly out. Bailey showed fatigue. His pitches to Skip Schumacher were all up as Bailey walked him.

The mostly reliable Arthur Rhodes was summoned to get one batter out, lefthanded hitting Chris Duncan.

Tony La Russa elected to send young Jarret Hoffpauir to the plate instead. Hoffpauir was called up from Memphis on Wednesday. The at bat marked his major league debut.

The rookie, who roomed with former Colerain High School star, Mike Ferris, was nervous.

"I had to get on base. We had the best hitter in baseball batting behind me," Hoffpauir said. "I told myself to settle down. I've done this before and I have, just not at this level."

Hoffpauir's walked agains the veteran Rhodes to set up the key match up in the game.

David Weathers, who is in 19th place with over 900 appearances, came on to try to get the hitter who has had the highest batting average, most home runs and RBI over the last 10 seasons.

Pujols was 9-for-18 against Weathers, lifetime with two home runs.

Weathers almost got the key out but a foul ball on a 2-2 pitch eluded Joey Votto and landed out of play.

Pujols eclipsed Musial on the next pitch making it look routine in a situation that was anything but.

The game even for Pujols is difficult and his manager when asked about the St. Louis fans by a national writer before the game said, "The fans in St. Louis understand how hard it is. They don't get upset when a player or manager gets beat. They won't tolerate less than your best effort but they know how to take a win and a loss the right way."