Starting Five: More History for Pujols

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That the milestones keep coming for Albert Pujols. He went into the record book in grand fashion Friday night, belting his 31st home run of the season. The drive was his fourth grand slam of the season and 10th of his career, both Cardinals' franchise records. The latter mark nudges him past Stan Musial on the club list.

"He broke Stan Musial's career record?" manager Tony La Russa asked. "I'll go bow to his feet here in a second. That's a serious point to make."

Pujols is on pace to finish 2009 with 61 home runs. And just in case that's not enough for you, it came in the eighth inning with the Cardinals down 3-0 to the Reds. St. Louis went on to beat Cincinnati 7-4.

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From the Trainer's Room ...
The Twins lost to the Tigers in 16 innings Friday night then lost a starting pitcher. Minnesota placed Kevin Slowey (10-3, 4.86 ERA) on the 15-day disabled list and called up Anthony Swarzak to replace him. Swarzak, who has shuttled back and forth between the Twin Cities and Triple-A Rochester this year, is 2-2 with a 3.90 ERA at the major league level in 2009.

Numbers Game ...
Just as in the first start of his career, journeyman San Francisco rookie Ryan Sadowski won his second, again holding his opponent scoreless. Sadowski has now started his career with 13 shutout innings, the most by a Giants pitcher since 1954, according to baseball-reference.com.

In Their Own Words ...
"This year it's a little different, and this game kind of told us who we were. We're going to go out there, we're going to pitch well and we're going to scratch out some runs and get some wins. That's our identity right now." -- Cubs catcher Koyie Hill after Chicago's 2-1 10-inning win over the rival Brewers. For all their struggles, the Cubs are 2 1/2 games out of first place in the NL Central three games from the midway point of their season.

Advance Scouting ...
The Phillies host the second game of their three-game weekend set with the Mets (4:05 PM ET). Philadelphia, which is 14-22 at home this year, won the opener of the series 7-2 and will send Jamie Moyer to the hill against New York's Fernando Nieve.