Drew breaks the draw<br>
By Rick Hummel<br>
05/23/2002<br>
<br>
J.D. Drew, in a one-for-16 skid, was benched with a
righthander pitching for the first time this season
and maybe last year, too, Wednesday night. Cardinals
manager Tony La Russa, who had rested Drew against a
lefthander the night before, figured that two days of
extra batting practice would do Drew more good than
playing. <br>
<br>
"Sometimes," said Drew, "you just get mentally fried."<br>
<br>
This was one of those times but, as it turned out,
Drew entered the game against the Houston Astros as a
pinch-hitter in the seventh inning. He chased a bad
ball from Roy Oswalt and struck out for a club-leading
45th time in 166 at- bats. <br>
<br>
"The swing felt good," he said. "I came back in
thinking, 'Man, I wish I hadn't swung at that.' But I
felt good." <br>
<br>
Drew would get one more chance as he led off the
ninth. And Drew would make the most of it, hammering a
Ricky Stone fastball over the back wall of the
Cardinals' bullpen in right field to snatch a 3-2
victory from the Astros at Busch Stadium. <br>
<br>
Drew thought it was his first game-winning homer since
his freshman year at Florida State when he beat
Oklahoma with a homer in the College World Series.
"That kind of put me on the map," said Drew. "Nobody
knew who I was then." <br>
<br>
Drew's seventh homer gave the Cardinals their fourth
straight win, their ninth in 10 games and their 11th
in their past 13. <br>
<br>
Now that he is two for his past 18, Drew was asked if
his slump was over. "It can never be over," he said.
"You're going to make outs sooner or later." <br>
<br>
But in the past two days, he said, "I made some
adjustments. I had to get my mind-set back to not
being so negative. You make an out and you have a
tendency to think about the 16 outs in a row you made
before that." <br>
<br>