DOWNTOWN — With two outs and the Cardinals ninth hitter of the inning at the plate in .369-hitting Albert Pujols, manager Tony La Russa wanted to push for something more than the five runs already on the board. There were a handful of reasons for them to a try a hit-and-run, including an obvious one.

La Russa digs it.

Back in 2005, he hit-and-ran the Cardinals into unexpected offense. It just hasn’t been that effective for the Cardinals this season, especially with Pujols.

La Russa has said several times that he loves sending the runner with Pujols at the plate because his best hitter is also a tremendous contact hitter. Through the course of his career, the numbers prove both: La Russa likes hit-and-running with Pujols; Pujols does put the ball in play. But how effectively? As the game is still going on here at Busch Stadium, we used Bernie Miklasz’s Magical Mystery Stat Machine (patent pending) and my neurotically detailed scorekeeping to go back through this season and chart the 12 times Pujols has taken a hit-and-run swing.

In a merger of Extra Points’ numbers and Bird Land’s notes — Bernie sitting in for a blog jam session (?) — we wanted to see how productive it has been.

Short answer: It hasn’t been.

But first a history lesson.

Again, mining Miklasz’s Stat Machine here are Pujols’ hit-and-run numbers since 2002, his second year in the majors (note: times are not at-bats; for example there can be three H&R attempts in one at-bat):

2007 … 25 times … 3 hits … 14 balls in play

2006 … 23 times … 3 hits … 10 balls in play

2005 … 14 times … 4 hits … 8 balls in play

2004 … 23 times … 8 hits … 13 balls in play

2003 … 8 times … 4 hits … 5 balls in play

2002 … 31 times … 9 hits … 17 balls in play

In the second inning of Sunday’s game against Pittsburgh, the Cardinals had Skip Schumaker at first base and five runs already in. Ryan Ludwick just struck out for the second time in as many at-bats and Pirates starter Ian Snell was facing his ninth batter of the inning. Naturally, La Russa signaled for a hit-and-run. Pujols fouled off the pitch. But the question came up in the press box: Not what Pujols had done with hit-and-runs this season but what he had done in at-bats even after the hit-and-run was called.

Out came out the beloved scorebook.

Pujols has been put in a H&R situation 12 times this season, according to statistics Bernie looked up. He has one hit. We went through each one to see not only the outcome of that pitch, but the outcome of the at-bat. (Note: K (DP) indicates a strikeout and the runner being thrown out for a double play.)

4/1 … 4th inning … Fouled off pitch. … K (DP).

4/5 … 7th inning … Grounded out on pitch. … 5-4.

4/11 … 1st inning … Tried twice: Fouled off, flew out. … F9.

4/26 … 7th inning … Fouled off pitch. … 6u-3 DP.

5/17 … 9th inning … Tried three times: Foul, foul, foul. … K (DP).

5/18 … 8th inning … Ground out. … 1-3.

5/21 … 1st inning … Ground out. … 5-3.

5/25 … 6th inning … Singled. … 1B.

For a hitter reaching base nearly 50 percent of the time and cranking out hits 33 percent of the time he hits with runners on base, the H&R hasn’t seemed to augment his ability to produce this season. Oh, and, in today’s game:

6/1 … 2nd inning … Fouled off pitch. … K.

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Again from Miklasz’s Stat Machine, the other Cardinals and their successes in H&R situations, bearing in mind that the first number is HITS and the second number is H&R attempts (not AB):

Cesar Izturis 2-5 … Yadier Molina 2-5 … Chris Duncan 1-2 … Aaron Miles 1-3 … Rick Ankiel 0-2 … Brian Barton 0-8 … Adam Kennedy 0-5 … Jason LaRue 0-2 … Brendan Ryan 0-3 … Skip Schumaker 0-7 … Rico Washington 0-2.

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Conspicuously absent from the above list of H&R is Troy Glaus. While we’re looking at numbers, a piggyback on today’s note about Glaus and his interest in hitting the ball the other way during his current funk. This season, against lefthanded pitchers, Glaus has put the ball in play to the right side of the field 41 percent, and 30 percent in the air. Compare that to 13 percent in 2007, and 10 percent in the air last season. Those numbers are more in line with the big-swing slugger’s career percentages. Against righthanded pitchers, Glaus has gone to right in the air 23 percent this season. Through his career, he’s usually hovered in the 10- to 15-percent range.

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