Sort of All-Star

Thumbs down to Tony LaRussa for leaving Albert Pujols on the bench with the bases loaded last night in the bottom of the ninth. Given that one of us is a Phillies fan and the other is a Sawx fan, we have split loyalties. But hitting Aaron Rowand isn't going to give you a better chance that hitting Pujols (who hit .400 over his last 10 games, versus Rowand's .241 clip over the same span). Yes, you don't want to have a player aggravate an injury. But even though Pujols is a whining bitch at times (last year's NL MVP vote, for example), he has a point. If the player is injured, leave him home. While LaRussa argued that he needed to leave a player on the bench for extra innings, you don't go to the tenth if you can't tie it in the ninth. The NL wasn't given a chance to win because a better player was left on the bench.