(AP)So Albert Pujols went homerless during Monday night's 4-3 win over Minnesota, making his April 2012 split of zero homers part of his permanent record and taking our "Emo Albert Pujols" picture post into its second month of relevance!

It also made baseball heavyweight Joe Posnanski surmise that perhaps this is the moment where Pujols' career turns into something more man than machine.

The calendar flipping from April to May is as arbitrary as any of the other data sets we've constructed for the $240 million man so far this season. But that doesn't mean it doesn't carry more weight than the situation did the day before. Critics and cynics can now point to a perfectly bound month in which Pujols marched to the plate 98 times and failed to hit a home run during any of his appearances. It's the second-longest power slump of his career and though he's had to beat reporter after reporter back with claims of a measured approach, you know it has to be bothering Pujols somewhere inside that noggin.

Heck, we saw a tiny bit of something — was it anger, surliness or impatience? — on Monday night when he took public umbrage at Angels hitting coach Mickey Hatcher divulging some details from a team hitting meeting. Publicly disagreeing with the higher-ups is something that didn't happen often — if ever — in St. Louis.

Writes Scott Miller of CBS Sports:

(AP)With Bryce Harper and Mike Trout ensconced comfortably in the big-league lifestyle, it has come time for the baseball world to identify another super prospect to hype endlessly while he's in the minors.

Yeah, Dylan Bundy will do.

While there are plenty of other prospects closer to making the majors and are great in their own right, the 19-year-old right-hander is making the type of debut that can inspire a "Matt Wieters facts" campaign of his own.

Place the cart before the horse! Count the eggs before they're hatched! The No. 4 pick in last year's draft has made four starts at low-A Delmarva and produced the type of line that'll get you drooling. Through 17 innings, he's allowed only one hit and two walks while striking out 25 batters. Forty-nine of the 52 batters he's faced have headed back to the dugout with disappointment in their hearts.

Of course, here's the point where we have to point out that Bundy is facing hitters that didn't garner the $4 million signing bonus that he did. Or that he's only about a year removed from attending his high school prom back in Oklahoma.

Still, it's fun to fire up the marching band and so you can't begrudge the Orioles fans who are salivating at the thought of finally having a true ace to place atop their rotation. Bundy's start has been so good that they're already talking timetables in Charm City.

Here's Dan Connolly in the Baltimore Sun:

After being dealt to Oakland as part of the Andrew Bailey trade last December, Josh Reddick had the chance to deal the Boston Red Sox another regret on Monday night. The second-year outfielder did a pretty good job with his bat, clubbing a three-run homer off Clay Buchholz in an 11-6 loss to the Red Sox at Fenway Park.  He has four homers on the season.

As for his glove, Reddick will have to wait for the rest of the series to make a mark. Though he made a great effort on David Ortiz's second home run of the night, Reddick earned himself the lead spot on highlight reels with an amusing blooper tumble over the short fence in right center. Watch the video here:

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For his part, Reddick took the fall in stride — pun most definitely intended — collecting his cap from a helpful member of the Red Sox bullpen and hopping back over to the right side of the wall.

So these folks from the World Wildlife Foundation and the Alliance to Save Energy were playing slow-pitch softball on the Mall in Washington, D.C., on Monday night when a certain Washington Nationals rookie sensation happened by. What's a 19-year-old Major League Baseball player going to do on his first day off in the bigs? Bryce Harper just couldn't help himself:

Courtesy: Lucian Mattia

He actually missed on his first swing! That's OK; Harper often points out that he faces an adjustment period his first time around a new league. He probably enjoyed hearing a bat go "ping" again, though, once he made contact.

Was Harper simply being wistful about missing his GED class trip to the nation's capital because of a baseball tournament, so he thought he'd give himself a walking tour of the sites and — lo, and behold! — there happened to be a baseball-like game in progress?

[Related: The 10 best moments from Bryce Harper's Nationals debut]

Not exactly. Here's what participant Reed Sandridge told The Stew's own Kevin Kaduk on Twitter about Harper joining the fun:

He was hanging out watching softball (doing some promo video) & we offered him an at bat! Sadly I couldnt run down his pop fly.

Harper makes himself easily spot-able with that haircut. I like the one guy faux-mocking him: "No batter, no batter!" But demanding that the "rookie" run out his fly ball? Pushing it. Sometimes it's better to say too little and leave them wanting more.

The video's YouTube description adds:

David Wright and Derek Jeter could only see each other once per season starting in 2013. (AP)Those who say that same-city interleague series have stopped being special may see their belief reflected in future schedules.

Matchups like Mets-Yankees and Cubs-White Sox could become only a one series per year affair, Adam Rubin of ESPN New York reports. That's because the Houston Astros' move to the AL in 2013 (and the necessity for year-round interleague play that follows) has created a scheduling nightmare that even the best computers will have trouble creating.

From ESPN New York:

The Mets and Yankees will continue to play six games a season -- three apiece at Citi Field and Yankee Stadium -- when the AL East and NL East line up for long-form interleague play every three years.

But in the other seasons, a major league source added, the competition likely will be limited to three games at one ballpark, or two games apiece at each ballpark.

Sources cautioned that the 2013 Major League Baseball schedule, and the precise new configurations, are still being discussed.

I'm guessing those ongoing "discussions" involve Jerry Reinsdorf of the White Sox and Fred Wilpon of the Mets getting their friend Bud Selig on the phone and complaining about the guaranteed three sellouts that could disappear from their ledgers every few seasons.

A restaurant named for the late New York Yankees icon Mickey Mantle finds itself on the verge of eviction, and its owners are going around cap-in-hand to former big-league ballplayers trying to raise money to pay its debts. Mickey Mantle's Restaurant, which the Mick himself once owned a 7 percent stake in and frequently patronized before his death, hasn't paid rent in four months and needs to raise "$1 million to get back on its feet."

That's the word in the New York Post from Bill Liederman, who was Mantle's original partner when the restaurant opened in 1987 and recently has been brought back by current ownership to save the failing sports bar, which apparently has been hit hard by the recession.

To raise the dough, he's trying to persuade former pinstripers including David Cone, Ron Guidry and Goose Gossage to chip in as little as $10,000 each.

But Liederman says he can't get to first base with current team members. "Their agents just laugh," he said.

"As little as"! Based on the era in which he played, it's possible that Cone might be walking around with $10,000 of tip money, but ten grand is probably big bucks to Guidry and Gossage and most of their contemporaries. As for today's Yankees? They owe Mantle's memory respect and honor, for sure, but that doesn't necessarily translate to bailing out a failed business that slapped his name on the front door.

Regardless of the amount, isn't it keen how the restaurant (and the Post) tries to shame the ballplayers into throwing good money after a bad idea? Someone should ask first: Is this restaurant even worth saving?

Lisa Swan of Subway Squawkers says nope.

For the past few weeks, I've been wondering how Brian Wilson might be best able to serve the San Francisco Giants as he recovers from season-ending Tommy John surgery.

After watching this video, I now have a pretty good idea. The eccentric closer can don a kilt and get rid of some of his extra hot air by leading the rest of the Giants bullpen onto the field with a set of bagpipes — just like University of Oregon relief pitcher David Wylie does:

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Ah, as Harry Caray used to say, you can't beat fun at the old ballpark, friends.