NL hopes to end recent AL domination

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Albert Pujols can't explain it.

He knows there are plenty of talented players in the National League, so why do they keep getting kicked around by their AL counterparts?

The American League is 8-0-1 in the last nine All-Star games. AL teams also swept the past two World Series and won an overwhelming 61 percent of interleague games this season.

"It's crazy. You look at those numbers and you can't believe it," the St. Louis slugger said Monday. "That's why you play this game for so long and never figure out why things happen.

"Hopefully, we can turn this thing around."

Pujols will get another chance tonight when he starts at first base and bats third for the NL in the 77th All-Star game at picturesque PNC Park.

But it won't be easy.

The AL boasts big sticks David Ortiz, Vladimir Guerrero and Jim Thome, plus ace pitchers Johan Santana, Roy Halladay and Mariano Rivera.

Indeed, there's nothing junior about the Junior Circuit.

"It's a far superior league right now," Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez said. "In the American League, this is an All-Star team among All-Star teams."

Bold words from a big-name player.

Stationed just to his left (as usual) on media day was shortstop Derek Jeter. Wearing a smart-looking suit, the New York captain was a little more, well, diplomatic about the AL-NL gulf.

"Alex said that? I didn't say that," offered a smiling Jeter, who often chooses his words carefully. "I think it's just one of those streaks, one of those stretches that you can't explain."

Maybe the American League truly has more talent. Maybe this sort of thing is simply cyclical and the lopsided numbers are a fluke. Whatever the case, it's an undeniable run of dominance that many National Leaguers want to stop.

Now.

"I'd have to say the American League is probably taking it a little more seriously," NL manager Phil Garner of the Houston Astros said.

"We are tired of getting beat. To me, the task this year is, let's get that sense of pride back for the National League."

And home-field advantage in the World Series, too.

But one of Garner's own players, slugger Lance Berkman, still sounded pretty cavalier. "We certainly want to win the game, but I don't think many guys are going to lose sleep over it if we don't," he said.

Of course, it wasn't always that way.

The National League used to own the AL, winning 11 straight All-Star games and 19 of 20 until Fred Lynn's grand slam off Atlee Hammaker at old Comiskey Park in Chicago helped snap the string in 1983.

The explanation back then was this: With more black and Latin stars such as Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente, the NL played a superior brand of ball - fast, energetic and determined.

Overall, the NL holds a 40-34-2 edge. So what's the reason for the American League's astounding success lately?

"We've inherited a lot of their great players," Rodriguez said. "I think revenue sharing has helped American League teams. It's just the way it has worked out.

"There's probably 30 or 40 guys in the American League that could be in the AllStar game that are not," said Rodriguez, making his 10th trip. "This is the hardest All-Star team that I've ever had to make."

Trying to reverse the NL's fortunes, righthander Brad Penny (10-2, 2.91 ERA) of the Los Angeles Dodgers will start against 41year-old Detroit lefty Kenny Rogers (11-3, 3.85), scorned at last year's summer showcase after shoving a cameraman earlier in the season.