TEMPE, Ariz. — If St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols scores the National League Player of the Week award for the first week of this season it will be the second consecutive P-O-W award he’s won dating back to the last week of last season.

It will also be an upset of sorts

The Cardinals present two candidates for the weekly award: Pujols, who had that seven-RBI Saturday, and Kyle Lohse, whose Easter Sunday shutout punctuated his 2-0 first week of the regular season. They each have compelling claims to the award. Consider their cases:

• Pujols — 9-for-24, 3 HR, 9 RBIs, 6 walks, 1 strikeout and a .375/.500/.792 line. Not to mention the career-high tying seven RBIs Saturday, in a game that featured a grand slam off Roy Oswalt.
• Lohse — 2-0 with a 1.13 ERA, 16 ip, 8 hits, 1 walk, 8 strikeouts and two earned runs. He had a career day of his own, taking a one-hitter into the ninth Sunday against Houston.

Pujols clearly has the award-darling numbers, and he’s sandwiched the offseason with quite a couple weeks. Take the final seven games of the 2008 season and fuse them with the first seven games of the 2009 season, and Pujols went 19-for-41 (.463) with 19 RBIs, six home runs and 13 runs scored. He slugged 1.146 in those 14 games, and he could be rightly rewarded with a second consecutive Player of the Week award. But the lean here is to Lohse. He’s started the season with two 100-pitch victories, and in his 16 innings pitched only three opponents have reached scoring position. One of the two runs he allowed came on a sacrifice fly in his first inning of work this season, and the other one was a home run.

A few facets of his gem Sunday are good places to start today’s 10@10:

1. Lohse became the first Cardinal to retire 24 consecutive batters in any game since Woody Williams did it in 2001. … Lohse was the first major-leaguer to retire 24 consecutive batters since Minnesota’s Scott Baker did so on August 31, 2007. … Lohse was also the first National Leaguer to do it since Randy Johnson threw his perfect game on May 18, 2004.

2. What was the surprise/highlight of the Cardinals first week?

   • Albert Pujols’ 7-RBI game, 3 HR and .375 average already.
   • Lohse caps 2-0 week with 3-hit shutout.
   • Seven Lineups for Seven Games (and not a Pontipee in sight).
   • First saves of season go to Reyes and McClellan.
   • Super Joe Thurston hitting .500 with four doubles, strong at 3B.
   • Houston, you have problems.
   • Surprises? Scoff. I had Reyes and McClellan in the save pool. Who didn’t?

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3. In case you missed it, colleague Bernie Miklasz had a column over the weekend about his search for the right words to describe Albert Pujols. And in it, he recounts a memorable coincidence for all of us who were there for Pujols’ debut in 2001 at Coors Field — complete with some background anecdotes that many of us weren’t aware of.
4. Including Lohse’s complete-game shutout Sunday, the Cardinals starting rotation takes a 14-inning scoreless streak into this evening’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Cardinals’ starting staff leads the National League with a 2.20 ERA after the first week of the season. But more remarkable is of the 45 innings the Cardinals starters have thrown, the opponent has only scored in six of them — when the starter is on the mound. Wainwright, who has been flummoxed by the brevity of his appearances, has yet to be on the mound when the opponents score a run. He supplied five of the 14 with Lohse handling the other nine.
5. Arizona has lost four of its five home games as they welcome the Cardinals to Chase Field for a three-game series. Yesterday, the club placed ace Brandon Webb on the 15-day disabled list with shoulder stiffness. He will miss at least a start. (This comes after reports of the D’backs pulling their offer of an extension because of insurance concerns. Know that feeling, Cardinals Nation?) Not that it matters to the Cardinals. The visitors have made a habit of skirting the aces in Arizona’s starting rotation. In six games at Chase Field during the past two seasons, they have faced Webb once. This week, the Cardinals are not scheduled to face Webb or Dan Haren. Scheduled to pitch against the Cardinals this week: LHP Doug Davis, RHP Mizzou Max Scherzer, RHP Jon Garland. The starters they’ve faced in two previous visits to Phoenix: Davis (twice), Yusmeiro Petit, Micah Owings, Webb and Johnson.
6. Khalil Greene had his first three-hit game Sunday in nearly a year. His last one came on April 20, 2008 — against these Arizona Diamondbacks. An NL-Wester his entire career until this year, Greene sports a .269 BA/.343 OBP/.476 SLG line in his career against Arizona. In 31 games at Chase Field, Greene has hit .289/.357/.516 with 18 of his hits going for extra-bases. His splits against the D’backs scheduled starters, however … limited. Of the three, he’s 0-for-3 in his career against Garland and 5-for-29 with 11 strikeouts against Davis.
7. Suggested Reading: And we all took for granted that the most memorable conversation Tony Gwynn ever had about hitting in St. Louis was when The Sporting News sat him and Stan Musial down for one of the must-read articles of his career. This weekend, The New York Times, reprinted an Associated Press story about Mark Wetzel, a hitting guru who helped Gwynn. Wetzel is blind.
8. Nearly 2 1/2 years ago — yikes, this thing has been going that long? — I wrote an entry about how the next technological leap in baseball metrics would be “A Radar Gun for Curveballs”. (Follow the link for a little Retro Bird Land.) This morning, I learned the following from ESPN’s impressive staff of researchers: LA Dodgers lefty Randy Wolf threw 19 curve balls on Sunday. Fourteen of them were strikes. They had an average break of 17.7 inches. Wait, there’s more: That was the second-best break of the day. Soon we’ll be talking about 18-inch curves as fluently and comfortably as we do 98-mph fastballs.
9. THE FARM REPORT: Tony Cruz, starting at catcher, went 3-for-5 with a couple runs scored and two RBIs for Class AA Springfield. Lefty Brad Furnish pitched five innings, striking out four and walking five but allowing no earned runs. The bullpen ruptured, leading to a late-game loss. … On Saturday, Daryl Jones went 2-for-3 with his first home run of the season for Springfield. So far this season, Jones is hitting .385/.529/.692. It’s his knack for taking a walk that hints at a refined approach at the plate — and a quick-mover. … Francisco Samuel struggled in the late inning, allowing three walks, three earned runs and one hit in 1/3 inning. … Pete Kozma finished the week with consecutive two-hit games for High-A Palm Beach. … On Saturday, P.J. Walters, who has thrust his name to the top of the No. 6 starter depth chart, pitched seven innings and struck out six for Triple-A Memphis. Chris Perez closed it out with his third scoreless inning of the season.
10. The Cardinals plan to meet with third baseman Troy Glaus while in Phoenix. There is little chance that the third baseman’s shoulder has improved in the week he’s been gone and that the Cardinals will start drawing up plans for his return. But getting a handle on his rehab — and answers lingering from this weekend’s New York Times report — is the Cardinals’ goal. That leaves us with a parting question …

What role do you expect Glaus to have this season and how essential is his return to the Cardinals contending?

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