for three weeks. On August 22, Pujols hit a three-run home run and a grand slam against John Maine in an 8–7 loss to the Mets. On September 28, with the Cardinals trailing the Padres 2–1 in the eighth inning, he hit a three-run home run against Cla Meredith, helping the Cardinals win 4–2 and end a seven-game losing streak. The win preserved the Cardinals' 1.5-game division lead; La Russa later called it "the most huge of the huge ones he's hit." Pujols finished the season with a .331 average (third to Freddy Sanchez's .344 and Cabrera's .339), 177 hits, 33 doubles, 49 home runs (second to Ryan Howard's 58), 137 RBI (second to Howard, 149) and 119 runs scored (tied with Matt Holliday, Hanley Ramírez, and Alfonso Soriano for fifth). Of his 49 home runs, 20 produced a game-winning RBI, breaking Willie Mays' single-season record set in 1962. He finished second to Howard in MVP voting and won the NL Gold Glove Award for first base. He won his first of four consecutive Fielding Bible Awards for the first base position. Led by Pujols and Carpenter, the Cardinals won the NL Central and reached the playoffs for the third year in a row. In Game 1 of the NLDS against the Padres, he hit a game-winning two-run home run against Jake Peavy as the Cardinals won 5–1. He had a game-winning RBI against David Wells and had three hits in Game 2 as the Cardinals won 2–0. He batted .333 with a home run and an RBI in the series as the Cardinals defeated the Padres in four games. In Game 2 of the NLCS against the Mets, Pujols scored three runs as the Cardinals won 9–6. He batted .318 with one home run and one RBI in the series as the Cardinals defeated the Mets in seven games. In Game 1 of the World Series against the Detroit Tigers, he hit a two-run home run against Justin Verlander as the Cardinals won 7–2. In Game 5, he made a sprawling, flip-from-his-back play to rob Plácido Polanco of a hit as the Cardinals clinched the series, giving Pujols his first career World Series ring. Near the beginning of the 2007 season in an April 22 game against the Cubs, Pujols hit a game-winning three-run home run against Ryan Dempster in the 10th inning of a 12–9 victory, tying Ken