ST. LOUIS — A niche record was just the excuse the fans at Busch Stadium needed this afternoon to give Albert Pujols two standing ovations — two! — in the middle of an inning, in the middle of a game the home crowd is losing.

Leave it to Joel Pineiro to have played his part in the record-setting putout.

For the first out in the fifth inning of today’s game against Milwaukee, Jody Gerut chopped a Pineiro sinker to the right side of the diamond. Pujols fielded it and flipped to Pineiro at first base for his 185th assist of the season. That breaks the record held by Bill Buckner, who had 184 assists for the Boston Red Sox in 1985. (It was the next year that he famously did not have an assist.)

When Pujols set the record, the Cardinals flashed an announcement on the scoreboard.

Pujols doffed his cap to the crowd when an ovation followed.

As that ovation worked its way around the stadium, the applause took on a more earnest pace — as if it was also a chance to laud the season Pujols, the universally acknowledged MVP of the league, is about to complete today. (Let me bang a drum again: He’ll also be the fourth player in history to complete a Decade Triple Crown, if such a thing suggested.) Pujols, standing off first base, doffed his cap a second time before the inning continued.

Prince Fielder then hit a 439-foot homer a few moments later …

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