You could almost see it coming.

Or not.

But Albert Pujols is an awesomely destructive hitter.

He's even more awesomely destructive against left-handed pitcher.

And believe it or not, the fact that Pujols had already hit two home runs in Game 3 did not make him any less likely to hit a third home run in Game 3.

Which of course he did. Darren Oliver got way too much of the plate with a high-80s fastball, and Pujols drove it 39X feet and beyond the left-field barrier, thus joining Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson as the only players with three home runs in a single World Series game.

We'll have more on Pujols later, as will everyone else. The trick, of course, is finding some reasonably original thing to say about a player who's been among the game's greatest hitters for more than a decade.

Meanwhile, this blowout is finally, mercifully almost over, as the Cardinals carry a 16-7 lead into the last of the ninth.