NL Central stretch run: Cardinals show a little life

Much like the Yankees in the AL East, the St. Louis Cardinals are playing third fiddle in the NL Central right now, and Albert Pujols did something about it on Wednesday.

A day after winning 12-0 in Busch Stadium, the second-place Brewers held a 3-1 lead after seven innings, and Milwaukee reliever Carlos Villanueva celebrated a bit too boisterously on the mound after escaping a bases-loaded rally. Pujols noticed.

"When you start pointing to the dugout and saying all the things that he was saying, a guy that respects the game like I myself, I didn't appreciate it and I had to let him know," Pujols told the Associated Press. "I guess he did us a favor. He woke up a sleeping giant."

St. Louis won 5-3, as Pujols' eighth-inning double set the tone in a big rally. It was their most important win of the season.

That's what Pujols has been doing all season. Remember before the season, when the talk was that Pujols' throwing arm was so badly injured that he might not last the season? All he's done is have an MVP-caliber season. He's now leading the NL in hitting at .357, has almost twice as many walks as strikeouts and leads the majors in on-base percentage and slugging percentage.

ESPN's Buster Olney, on his Insider blog, reports that in the last 50 years, only two players led their league in both batting and slugging and had a walks-to-strikeouts ratio as high as Pujols'. Barry Bonds did it twice, in 2002 and 2004, and George Brett did it in 1980.

In today's installment of pennant-race outlooks, let's check out the NL Central:

• Why the Cubs will win: With 29 games left, 26 are against teams with winning records, and Chicago finishes up against the Mets and Brewers. But with an 86-50 record (best in baseball), they would need a catastrophic collapse to miss the postseason in the 100th anniversary season of their last championship. Now we just wait to see how the Cubs blow it, or (dare I say it) win it all?
• Why the Brewers will win: The best 1-2 starting punch in a rotation this year in Ben Sheets and CC Sabathia, and the lessons learned from last year, when Milwaukee collapsed in late August. With the league's second-best record, it's looking a lot like their first postseason since 1982. They lead the Cardinals and Phillies in the wild-card race, as of Aug. 28, by 3.5 and 4 games, respectively.
• Why the Cardinals will win: The Cardinals' record would be right in the thick of things in most years, but it's only good in the suddenly strong Central. But it's not going to be enough. With seven games against Arizona and six against the Cubs in the final month, it's now or never for a St. Louis rally. Considering the Cards' injury-depleted rotation with Kyle Lohse, Braden Looper, Adam Wainwright and Todd Wellemeyer at the top, it's been a nice ride.
• Pick: Cubs to win, Brewers in wild-card.

Tomorrow: AL West. Saturday: NL East.