With two outs in the eighth inning during a game last Friday night, Cardinals’ manager Tony La Russa gave Ryan Ludwick the steal sign with slugger Albert Pujols up to bat. Ludwick, who has been unsuccessful in all of his steal attempts this season, kept his streak alive and was thrown out at second base, effectively taking the bat out of Pujols’ hands.

This angered Pujols, who then threw a tantrum in the dugout. During the midst of his meltdown, La Russa barked at his star first baseman that, “I know how to (expletive) manage.” Once word of the exchange was made public, Pujols quickly defused the situation and nothing more was made out of it.

But St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bryan Burwell suggests that the issue lies deeper than just a star player getting into a spat with his skipper.

Of far more significance is the reason La Russa saw fit to essentially take the bat out of Pujols’ hand. The fact that the manager felt the need to attempt to manufacture a run in that situation tells you that he knows how much is favorite player is struggling.

That’s what makes his most recent well-documented struggles so puzzling. Over the last 10 games, he’s without an RBI, and he has only five in the last 20 games. Through his last 11 games, Pujols is batting .222 (eight for 36) with only six runs scored, and two extra-base hits (one double, one homer) and two RBIs.

Even more alarming is his last 22 games this month, with a .256 average, one homer and 10 RBIs. So when we see a man who has been a hitting and run-producing metronome for so long, it raises several obvious questions like “why” and “what’s wrong”?

I don’t think we’ll ever hear it from Pujols’ mouth that he’s struggling physically, but La Russa needs to find a way to wake up his bat. I don’t know if that means sitting him down for a mental (or physical) break, or if the manager has any more psychological tricks up his sleeve. He is a master at finding ways to bring out the best in his players. He has spent most of the first few months nursing along Brendan Ryan, Skip Schumaker and Holliday with varying degrees of success.

Pujols is right in that he’s spoiled everyone with his consistency over the last 10 years. He’s been a robot when it comes to production so when he falls into a slump this bad, everyone immediately hits the panic button.

But he’s not immune to slumps, bouts of frustrations or (gasp!) poor play. He’s the best hitter in baseball and he’ll figure it out – he just needs time to work through it. And I don’t know if there’s anything La Russa can do, or needs to do.

Baseball has a way of humbling players. When you’re in the midst of a slump, you feel like it will never end. But it does and Pujols isn’t the only marquee hitter that’s struggling. Prince Fielder is also off to a slow start and Pablo Sandoval saw his average drop nearly 80 points since the month of May started. Slumps happen – even to robots like Albert Pujols.

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