By moving third baseman David Freese into the cleanup spot for Thursday night’s Game 4 of the NLCS, St. Louis Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa has highlighted one of the new realities for his team: Freese has become as indispensible a part of the Cardinals’ lineup as anyone not named Albert Pujols.

(SARAH CONARD – REUTERS)
It was a fairly significant lineup change La Russa made Thursday, benching veteran Lance Berkman against Milwaukee Brewers lefty Randy Wolf, and sliding Matt Holliday down to No. 5.

“He’s our best guy against a left-handed pitcher,” La Russa said, “which is what we’re facing — so he’s hitting fourth.”

Freese’s breakout this month has included a .367/.387/.800 batting line through the Cardinals’ first eight games of the postseason, including two homers, two doubles and six RBI in Games 1, 2 and 3 of the NLCS.

Freese, 28, is a late-bloomer who didn’t break into the majors until the age of 26, and still hasn’t played more than 97 games in a season, thanks to major injuries in both 2010 and 2011. One reason for his late arrival is the fact he walked away from baseball for a time after high school, as described in this excellent piece by Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.The Cardinals acquired him in a December 2007 trade from San Diego for veteran outfielder Jim Edmonds (who, coincidentally, is throwing out Thursday night’s ceremonial first pitch).

When the Cardinals’ lineup is going well, with Berkman and Holliday (in whichever order) filling the No. 4 and No. 5 spots in the lineup behind Pujols, and with Freese at No. 6, it gives the Cardinals an extremely deep, AL-style lineup.

Even now, with Berkman struggling and Holliday slowed by a wrist injury, having Freese available to slide seamlessly into the cleanup spot is a huge luxury for the Cardinals. And having Freese there may force the Brewers to think twice about pitching around Pujols.

“I can’t keep walking Albert,” Brewers Manager Ron Roenicke conceded Thursday. “They have too good hitters behind him.”

ST. LOUIS (AP)—The St. Louis Cardinals purchased the contract of infielder
Matt Carpenter from Triple-A Memphis on Friday and recalled first baseman Mark
Hamilton(notes) from their top farm club.

Rookie right-hander Maikel Cleto was optioned to Double-A Springfield and
infielder Pete Kozma(notes) was optioned to Memphis.

Manager Tony La Russa said right-hander Lance Lynn(notes), who gave up five runs in
5 1-3 innings in his major league debut on Thursday night, would get another
turn in the rotation. The Cardinals are short a man with Kyle McClellan(notes) on the
15-day disabled list with a hip injury.

Lynn wouldn’t have been surprised if he had been optioned.

“Woke up. I was just hoping,” Lynn said. “I was glad to get that first
one out of the way. Now it’s back to work.”

Cleto made his major league debut in a 12-7 loss to the Giants on Thursday
and gave up five runs in two innings, while Kozma was 1 for 8 at the plate since
his first major league callup on May 17.

La Russa said Kozma needs to get playing time.

Carpenter was batting .283 with two home runs and 23 RBIs in 52 games at
Memphis before his first major league callup. Hamilton batted .200 in 16 games
earlier this season with St. Louis and was batting .452 (19 for 42) in 12 games
at Memphis since May 19.

“If you’re not nervous, you are probably not human,” Carpenter said.

JUPITER, Fla. — Colby Rasmus hit his second homer of the spring, and second in four at-bats, for the St. Louis Cardinals in their 5-2 loss to the Florida Marlins on Thursday.

Jake Westbrook gave up four runs on nine hits in five innings for St. Louis. Westbrook struggled in the third when Florida had four singles with RBIs by Hanley Ramirez and Gaby Sanchez. Ramirez doubled and Sanchez drove him in on consecutive two-out at-bats in the fifth.

“I felt good. I didn’t make any pitches when I needed to,” Westbrook said. “A lot of two-out hits for RBIs — that was the difference in the game.”

Matt Holliday had an RBI double in the seventh and is 10 for 22 during an eight-game hitting streak.

Meanwhile, Adam Wainwright has reported to the Cardinals’ spring training camp for elbow rehab less than three weeks after undergoing reconstructive surgery.

The 20-game winner said he remains optimistic he’ll be ready to go next spring.

Wainwright said the rotation will be fine without him. Kyle McClellan has been impressive in three spring starts and is likely to take Wainwright’s spot.

Other developments

Judge bars Bonds’ voice mails: A federal judge on Thursday barred the jury at Barry Bonds’ perjury trial from hearing angry voice mails the home run king left with his mistress during a stormy nine-year relationship.

Prosecutors wanted to introduce the voice mails to show that Bonds was experiencing so-called “roid rage” when he left the messages demanding to know the whereabouts of Kimberly Bell. But U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston said Thursday that the voice mails had little relevance to proving Bonds lied when he denied knowingly taking steroids.

Marcum sore: Shawn Marcum pitched three solid innings Thursday in a 4-0 victory over a Chicago White Sox split-squad in Phoenix before departing because his shoulder didn’t feel right.

“If it were the regular season, especially August, September, I’d pitch through it and wouldn’t say a word,” he said.

Marcum threw two perfect innings and allowed only Alexei Ramirez’s leadoff single in the third. He said his shoulder started to tighten between the second and third innings.

Milwaukee already is without right-hander Zack Greinke, who fractured a rib playing pickup basketball, and Manny Parra, who has been slowed by muscle tightness in his back.

“Geez, we’re in a tough spot if he’s down for a while,” Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said. “There’s definitely a concern there.”

Other games: Mike Leake pitched four scoreless innings to help the Cincinnati Reds beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-1, on Thursday in Goodyear, Ariz. The right-hander, vying with Homer Bailey and Travis Wood for two openings in the rotation, allowed three hits, struck out two and walked one. … Texas Rangers right-hander Colby Lewis struck out six in five solid innings Thursday against Kansas City’s Triple-A team. … Chipper Jones hit his third homer of the spring as the Atlanta Braves beat the Washington Nationals, 7-6, in Kissimmee, Fla. Jones, coming back from major knee surgery last August, also had a run-scoring double to give him 11 RBI this spring. … Conor Jackson hit a game-ending double to cap a three-run ninth as the Oakland Athletics overcame home runs by Alfonso Soriano, Geovany Soto and Reed Johnson for a 6-5 win over the Chicago Cubs in Phoenix. Cubs starter Ryan Dempster gave up two runs on four hits over six innings against A’s regulars.

Briefly: Yankees manager Joe Girardi moved Brett Gardner from ninth to first in the lineup for Thursday’s game with the Rays, with Derek Jeter dropping to second spot. Jeter batted first 137 times last season. … New York Mets right fielder Carlos Beltran participated in light workouts for a second straight day Thursday, but his batting practice again was limited to the right side because of tendinitis in his left knee.

JUPITER, Fla. — If he’s worried about where life will lead him, out beyond the horizon, Albert Pujols never showed it.

If he’s hurt, if he’s angry, if he thinks he’s been wronged by a Cardinals team that’s kicked away its final exclusive window to sign him, he’s keeping all that wrapped up in his inner safe, deep inside his serene outer shell.

“

I want to be a Cardinal forever. That’s my goal.

” – Albert Pujols

If he’s looking around already, trying to fathom that this could be his final spring — and season — in the only uniform he’s ever worn, he never let on. Not for a moment. Not with one word that comes out of his mouth. Not with a single roll of the eyeballs.

The most important season of Pujols’ life begins now. Begins here. Begins with a familiar journey to a familiar clubhouse, where the same familiar faces still surround him.

And if you took him at his word Thursday morning, when he spoke to the media hordes with a smile on his face for 24 remarkable minutes, he has no interest in ever looking for the exit sign. Not now. Not ever.

“I want to be a Cardinal forever,” he said. “That’s my goal.”

These were the words his fan club in St. Louis needed to hear. These were the words he most needed to utter if he wants to make it through this season atop the same pedestal where these people have placed him for a decade.

He couldn’t possibly have sounded more sincere, couldn’t possibly have looked more comfortable. It was Sir Albert at his finest, at his smartest, at his most charming. He had his message to deliver. He made sure to deliver it in response to as many questions as possible.

If you want to take him at his word, accept all of this at face value, feel free. Just recognize that there was plenty he didn’t say.

He certainly never said he wanted to be a Cardinal forever no matter what.

He certainly never said he wanted to be a Cardinal forever at any price.

He certainly never said he wanted to be a Cardinal forever at a discount — especially the kind of hometown discount this team has grown so accustomed to being granted by its stars.

He handled all those issues smoothly, deftly, just by saying he won’t negotiate this deal through the media. It’s a line that serves as the perfect escape hatch any time this topic grows even remotely uncomfortable.

As his general manager, John Mozeliak, had done the day before, Pujols brought up the name of Derek Jeter, and not just once. But the most pointed reference came in a response to a question that included the not-so-magic word, “discount.”

“I already told you I don’t want to negotiate through you guys,” Pujols told his media entourage, “because that’s not how it works. We’ve done a pretty good job of keeping this quiet and …”

OK, wait for it …

“Because we don’t want to get this crazy,” he went on, “like what happened with one of the great superstars in New York.”

Now isn’t it interesting that when Pujols and his team look from afar at Jeter’s rocky voyage through free agency, this is what both of them see?

Not so much a parallel in which a franchise icon was allowed to play out his free-agent season, only to re-sign — but a messy public negotiation that may have forever damaged the relationship between a player and team that need each other?

No player and no team would ever look at that rocky negotiating saga as The Way It Ought to Be Done. Certainly not this player. Certainly not this team. But it’s the other half of that Jeter/Pujols parallel that’s actually far more meaningful.

Jeter is an example of how teams allow star players to sail those free-agent seas all the time — and some of them do come back. It happens when both sides care enough about each other that they work to find a way home.

Even more important, though, it happens when both sides need each other so much that no other destination can ever possibly feel right.

But is that what we’re seeing here with Pujols and the Cardinals?

We don’t lack for evidence that the Cardinals didn’t exactly exhaust every avenue in their negotiating atlas to get their man signed this winter, despite their assurances to the contrary Wednesday.

And those same negotiations serve as equal proof that Pujols has other dishes on his table besides that Cardinal For Life entrée he spoke so passionately about Thursday. So as earnestly and eloquently as he may have professed his love for his team, never forget this:

He doesn’t need the Cardinals in the same way Derek Jeter needed the Yankees last winter. Not to get paid what he thinks he should get paid. And not to complete his Hall of Fame legacy.

Listen to Pujols’ answer Thursday to a question about how important it would be to him to be known as a Cardinal for life:

“Well, it’s a good thing I don’t have to make that decision today,” he said at first. But then that little voice in his brain, the one that was supposed to remind him to voice only happy thoughts, kicked in — and he shifted gears, practically in mid-sentence.

“Yeah, this is a great place to have on your résumé, to be a Cardinal for life,” he said. “You know, there’s not too many players who stay with one organization. So believe me, it’s a good place to have in your life.”

All right. Now listen, however, to the grand finale:

“So yeah, hopefully that happens,” he concluded. “But if not, I mean, then it’s something that you can’t control.”

Well, of course he can control it. Both sides control it. Yet both said repeatedly, in their dueling meetings with the media, that this was out of their control. Really? Then who controls it — Donald Trump?

Somewhere along the line, Sir Albert has the decision of a lifetime to make. But as he reminded us often Thursday, the time for that decision isn’t now. Not anymore. Not after he passed on the only offer the Cardinals tossed through their wintertime window of opportunity. Not after Wednesday’s noon deadline roared by with a press release, not a contract.

“

I already told you I don’t want to negotiate through you guys, because that’s not how it works. We’ve done a pretty good job of keeping this quiet.

” – Albert Pujols

So when Pujols was asked Thursday morning how hard it was to imagine that this might be his final season as a Cardinal, his answer gave us a great feel for how he’s going to manage to handle all that awaits him over the next eight, or nine, or 10 months:

“I don’t have to worry about it,” he said. “And I don’t want to think about it.”

You can’t be a truly great athlete in this modern sports world we live in without a strength that isn’t visible in your biceps or forearms. It’s that inner strength, that ability to summon tunnel vision, that guides all the great ones through the modern jungle of sports.

And make no mistake about it: Pujols has that.

“I told him today that if there’s one guy who can handle the distractions, it’s him,” said his manager, Tony La Russa, on Thursday. “And he said: ‘Watch me.’”

Oh, and we will. Trust us. Albert may not fully comprehend this yet, but over these next nine or 10 months, he’s about to become The Biggest Story in Sports. He’s now LeBron. He’s now Favre. He’s now the topic that can light up any talk-show host’s call board.

Asked how any human being could find a way to handle that, the relentless self-assurance that has gotten Pujols to this place came shining through.

“Believe me, I’ve never been in a situation like this before,” he said. “But I’ve been [under] attention since my rookie year, since I got to the big leagues. Pressure. Pressure. And pressure. And I’ve put that in the past.

“I’ve been blessed by God with different ability,” he said, confidently. “I just flip that page, man. And you guys are gonna see. You’re gonna see in spring training. I’m not gonna change anything.”

And if you want to take anything Pujols said Thursday on its face, take that. Believe that. His manager certainly does.

“Over 10 years [together], you learn a lot about a guy,” Tony La Russa said. “And he won’t change. He’ll never change.”

So this is the final time you’ll hear Pujols answering these questions, kicking around these issues. One thing he’s determined not to do is turn this season into LeBron II.

“I’m Albert Pujols,” he said, sternly. “He’s LeBron James. … I would never do anything like that.”

So cancel that ESPN Albert special. Wrong free agent. Wrong script.

“Actually, let’s do a reality show,” Pujols joked.

Hey, now that we can do: “The Real Zillionaires of St. Louis County,” coming right up, right after this very special word from the accounting department.

Except that this is no joke. This man is about to become the best reality show going. He just doesn’t know it yet.

“The deadline was [Wednesday],” Albert Pujols said. “It’s time to play baseball.”

And it is. Unfortunately, for these next nine or 10 months, for The Best Player Alive, baseball will be far from the only game in his action-packed town.

Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com. His latest book, “Worth The Wait: Tales of the 2008 Phillies,” was published by Triumph Books and is available in bookstores and online. Click here to order a copy.