Albert Pujols showed up at the World Series hitting what baseball people like to call a ``quiet'' .324.

That made it sound as if the St. Louis slugger walked all the way to Motown on his tippy-toes, but no. In this case, quiet meant Pujols was putting up respectable numbers in the post-season boxscores, but not enough, finally, on the scoreboard. Not enough, anyway, for a guy widely regarded as the most dangerous hitter in the game.

That all changed with one swing of the bat Saturday night.

Pujols re-directed the first pitch he saw in the third inning _ a 94 m.p.h. fastball from hard-throwing Detroit starter Justin Verlander _ into the right-field seats for a two-run homer and the road-weary Cardinals went on to steal a 7-2 decision in Game 1.

That one swing also ignited a debate that will rage for the rest of this Series:

Pitch to Pujols? Or not?

``I could go into a lot of detail about that,'' Tigers manager Jim Leyland said tersely, ``but I'll leave it at this: The manager's decision is either to pitch to him or walk him. I pitched to him and obviously he burned us.

``I'm not going to get into a lot of explanation about what the thinking was. But I take the bullet there and if somebody gives criticism you accept it, because it's ultimately my decision.''

Leyland is an old-school manager who hates giving anybody anything for free, which means every Pujols' bat from here on out is likely to turn into a chess match. Leyland has considered giving up smoking more times this season than giving a hitter _ any hitter _ an intentional walk. So it's a safe bet that every time the camera catches him during one, expect to see a lighted cigarette dangling from his lips.

The Tigers issued just 35 free passes during the regular season, the sixth-lowest total in the American League. Before Saturday, the only time Leyland saw Pujols up close and personal was during a three-game series against St. Louis in June, and he walked him intentionally exactly once.

And before this one, Leyland was very cagey about his plans. But Verlander went right at Pujols in the first inning, mixing fastballs and curves, snapping off a sharp breaking ball at 2-2 and striking him out. Then came Pujols' first swing in the third, and it quickly made any debate about strategy irrelevant.

``I just try to see the ball,'' Pujols explained, ``and put a good swing on it.''