All the wrong reasons

ARLINGTON, Texas - Albert Pujols began walking off the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington field Friday afternoon, noticed the media horde gathered in hope of an audience with him, quickly became engulfed by an array of microphones, cameras, recorders and notebooks, and came out firing.

No, he wasn't ducking the media after making an error that contributed to his St. Louis Cardinals' 2-1 loss to the Texas Rangers in Game 2 of the World Series a night earlier.

No, he wasn't shirking his responsibilities as team leader since he was in the clubhouse lunchroom for 40 minutes and available to speak but no one asked, he claimed.

And no, he didn't think there needed to be any furor over his failure to answer for the loss.

"I guess the way you guys are ripping me off I guess I need to stay (Saturday) in the clubhouse until you guys decide to talk to me," Pujols said sarcastically. "My responsibility I have is with God and my family, I don't have responsibilities with anybody else.

"I try to do the best that I can to represent the game of baseball, I do that. Sometimes you're going to make mistakes. Did I feel last night I made a mistake? I don't think so. I was waiting and nobody approached me. What can I do? There's nothing I can do."

Whether a case of much ado about nothing or a legitimate leadership lapse - a fair case can be made for both - Pujols' post-game absence became the primary talking point on a pleasantly warm Texas afternoon.

Both teams held leisurely workouts ahead of Saturday's Game 3 with the Fall Classic tied a game apiece, thanks in part to the superstar slugger's failure to cut off a relay throw on Elvis Andrus's single, allowing the Texas shortstop to advance an extra base and help set up the winning run.

His failure to appear in the area accessible to media in the Cardinals clubhouse afterwards turned into a story when several of his younger teammates answered wave after wave of questions about the incident, a task the veteran poised to break the bank in free agency should have taken off their hands.

A handful of media outlets took him to task for it, and Pujols wasn't pleased.

At times testy, at times annoyed, the hard hitting first baseman insisted he waited around 40 minutes and when no one asked for him, he went to join his family.

"I did that against Philly and I did that against Milwaukee and now somebody wants to make that a big deal? That's what I don't understand and that's not fair," said Pujols, who also accepted responsibility for the error. "All of a sudden it's the World Series, big stage, somebody wants to make a big deal about it. Come on guys, I don't think that's fair."

Neither does Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, who defended Pujols along with fellow veterans Lance Berkman, Matt Holliday and Yadier Molina, who skipped out on the media too. The team expects its players to fulfil the responsibility of speaking with reporters, and he feels his guys did that.

"I heard the criticism, and it offends me because I know our attitude as an organization is 180 degrees different from the way it's being portrayed," said La Russa. "Nobody asked for those guys, and they got out of there. They had other things to do. All they had to do is say who do you want to talk to, the guys will be available."

Later in the Cardinals clubhouse Pujols had some fun with the situation, shouting to his teammates: "Before you leave make sure you go to the media."

Several chuckled, others hooted and hollered, and there was little sense that the previous night the Cardinals allowed the Rangers back into the Series with one of their sloppier innings of the post-season.

"You can hear it our clubhouse right now," said reliever Marc Rzepczynski. "Yesterday was yesterday and today we're worrying about getting ready for tomorrow. It was a tough loss, unfortunately, but we've moved on.

"It would be great to be up 2-0, but it's still 1-1. Now it's a best of five, I trust our team."

Still, the dynamic has changed.

Three outs away from facing the same 2-0 deficit they couldn't overcome in last year's World Series, the Rangers are now back home level and with home-field advantage in their back pocket.

Andrus described the swing as "big" since being "two games down, it's pretty tough, you have to force yourself to win games."

"I think (Thursday's) game gave us a lot of momentum, a lot of intensity, and (let us) take a big breath and come back home with a chance to win it all," he added.

Not only that, the Rangers will be back home, where they are 4-1 so far in the post-season, and in a climate far more conducive for some offence. The weather was cold and miserable during the first two games in St. Louis, cooling the bats of both teams in process.

"That's going to be a big key for us," said Andrus. "The first game wasn't easy, it was super cold, the coldest I've played in the last two or three years, it's tough. You can't loosen your upper body, you don't feel your hands, your ears. … Your swing is not the same for sure, it kind of slows your body a little bit.

"But I don't like to make excuses. You have to find a way to win the game."

The Rangers did precisely that but also realized precisely how tough an opponent the Cardinals will be. The teams combined for four runs apiece over the first two games, both one-run affairs, with the margin of difference determined by a single moment or two of execution in a key spot.

"Obviously we're extremely locked in," said Rangers DH Michael Young. "The last two games have been a lot of fun to be a part of but in the post-season no matter what the score is you're like that every pitch. It could be a 10-run game or it could locked up at nothing, like it was last night, the biggest thing is to make sure you're finding ways to score and playing good defence."

The Cardinals didn't do enough of the latter in Game 2 and that landed Pujols in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Game 3 gives him the chance to remedy that.

"We're going to bounce back the same way we've been doing all year," Pujols promised.

Expect him to be there to talk about it afterwards.

Shi Davidi is the MLB Insider for sportsnet.ca. Come back to read his insight and opinion regularly.