Pujols' sorry start: 92 at-bats, no HRs

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Albert Pujols ripped a long drive down the left-field line, and the Los Angeles Angels rose in the dugout along with the crowd. The ball sliced through the heavy night air, soaring into the stands - and hooking just a few feet foul outside the yellow pole.

The collective groan in Angel Stadium was audible from the dugout to the bleachers Monday, and it's getting louder every night. One month into a lavish contract with a new team, baseball's most feared slugger has lost his pop.

"I know I can hit home runs," Pujols said. "When it's going to happen, I don't know."

Pujols didn't hit a homer for the Angels in April, shockingly going 23 games and 92 at-bats without once doing what he did 445 times over 11 seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals. Dating back to late last season, the three-time NL MVP and two-time World Series champ is in the longest long ball-drought of his career, going 29 games and 121 at-bats without a homer.

For a gifted power hitter in the ostensible prime of his career, it's a distressing stretch of futility even in the earliest stages of his 10-year contract. For the Angels, who are paying $240 million for homers and victories from arguably the best offensive player of his generation, it's a simmering problem that's threatening to boil.

"I don't think about that, man," Pujols said. "It could be tomorrow, maybe the next day, a month from now, I don't know. My job is to get myself ready to play and take my swing. ... Home runs, when they come, they come in bunches."

They're not coming at all in Anaheim, and that's not what the Angels expected after signing Pujols away from the Cardinals for the next decade with the third-richest contract in major-league history. Even worse, Pujols' new teammates have slumped along with him, and last-place Los Angeles heads into May in an 8-15 funk despite Monday's 4-3 win over majors-worst Minnesota.

Not even matching the worst start in franchise history has caused the Angels to waver from publicly backing their first baseman. They still expect to see the power of the man who hit three homers in Game 3 of the World Series last fall, matching a feat only accomplished by Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson.

"Even though he's a leader and has been around, we've still got to lift him up, because the game will slap you in the face sometimes and humble you," said fellow veteran Torii Hunter, who shared Pujols' power drought until hitting three homers in the last four games.

Pujols has the highest batting average and slugging percentage of any active player, but he's hitting .217 with just four RBIs and eight extra-base hits - all doubles, and just one in the last nine games.

Pujols deploys a frustrated smirk whenever he's asked about his homer-less start, saying he has "been in this situation before."

He insists he's "putting good swings on the ball," as evidenced by that 350-foot foul ball in the fifth inning Monday night.

"I know what I need to do, and I'm making my adjustment," Pujols said. "I've been doing it for 12 years, so I know my hitting."

If Pujols wants extra coaching, he could get it from fellow players, talk-radio callers, and even fans on the street in Anaheim and Los Angeles, where Pujols' arrival was heralded by a massive marketing campaign and a sharp spike in ticket sales for the already-popular Angels, who outdrew the Dodgers for the first time last season.

The solutions range from swing adjustments to pressure-relieving mind games to extra days off.

Angels manager Mike Scioscia has tried numerous changes to his lineup, which ranks 13th out of 14 AL teams with just 80 runs in the Angels' first 23 games. Scioscia insists Pujols will find his own way out of the slump, even while it deepens.

"He's got a routine that's worked for him, he's committed to it, and there's nobody working harder to get out of this than Albert," Scioscia said.

But 247 players have homered this season before Pujols, who led the NL in homers in 2009 and 2010. He hasn't even had many narrow misses, among them that foul ball and a drive off the top of the left-field fence against Oakland during the Angels' previous homestand.