The theme to Friday's game was obviously "Walks". Consider:

• While the discussion on the Internet and on the airwaves is whether Albert Pujols will get the Bonds Treatment, Pujols had zero walks last night. I can't see Dusty Baker cowering before Pujols, even if he should be.

• The game was headed for a breakout when Jerome Williams walked Aaron Miles to load the bases with nobody out in the second, and then Mark Mulder to force in a run. Miles has exceeded his 2005 walk total already.

• Bob Brenly and Len Kasper theorized that John Rodriguez would get a lot of pitches to hit, since the Great Pujols was standing in the on-deck circle. So of course Rodriguez drew a walk in the seventh. I'm not sure I buy the theory that hitting in front of Pujols means you'll get a steady diet of strikes. For example, last year Pujols got all but a handful of his at-bats in the #3 spot, and the Cardinals drew 58 walks from the #2 spot in 2005. (Holy cow, Nuñez his .352 in the #2 spot a year ago.) That works out to about 1/9th of the Cardinals' total (534), and while the #2 spot gets a few extra PAs versus average, that spot had the disadvantage of possessing only 2 Pujols PAs. Pitchers probably try to trade OBP for SLG in that spot, but it's not a black and white issue.

• Yadier Molina doesn't have a walk yet, presumably not because he's hitting in front of Aaron Miles. It's time to pull out the anti-jinx jinx and proclaim that Yadier won't have a walk before Memorial Day. Jeff Passan has speculated that the WBC has hurt pitchers, but I'm wondering if Molina was hurt by his non-participation participation in the tourney. (Is Al Hrabosky allowed to blame Juan Encarnacion's slow start on the WBC?)

• Last, and most importantly, Mark Mulder only gave up one walk in eight innings. He's only given up two walks this season. Mulder's K-rate isn't the only thing that deteriorated starting in 2004. In 2001 and 2003 Mulder was among the top ten in the AL in BB/9, but in 2004 and 2005 he was thoroughly mediocre in that category. While that wasn't exactly a threatening Cubs lineup last night, I'll take all the good signs I can get.

I'll tack-on one extra, as AJ Burnett will be walking into Dr. James Andrews' office soon. Yes, I'm going to hell for that sentence, which I hope won't prevent some divine entity from explaining to me what the big deal was about Burnett.