Detroit Tigers first baseman Chris Shelton, a former Pittsburgh Pirate farmhand, is congratulated at home after his solo home run in the fourth inning against the Cleveland Indians Sunday. Shelton, with eight home runs this season, is on pace to hit 108 longballs this season.

In Philadelphia and around the major leagues, baseball just can't get the home-run genie back in the bottle.

In 2006, the homer, which in the last century resurrected the sport from scandal and strike, is under attack.

Fans are raising a stink about steroid-cheapened home-run records. Baseball is raising its efforts to eliminate the illicit substances that transformed the `90s into a decade of record destruction. The Phillies raised Citizens Bank Park's left-field wall.

Still, the dingers keep heading downtown.

Opening Day in Philadelphia brought five home runs, all to left field. Leaguewide, the round-tripper rate early this season is greater than in all but one of the last 10 years.

In San Francisco, with Barry Bonds trailing Babe Ruth by six, the nation's next existential home-run crisis is about to get hairy.

At this rate, Chris Shelton may become Michigan's most renowned lumber-toting folk hero since Paul Bunyan — or at least Cecil Fielder.

Yes, Shelton hit another home run at Comerica Park on Sunday afternoon. That's No. 8. He is the first Tiger — and first player in American League history — to have that many in his first 12 games, according to home run historian David Vincent and the Elias Sports Bureau. Most important, his latest long ball, off lefthander Cliff Lee, accounted for the lone run in the Tigers' 1-0 triumph over Cleveland.

With the season's inaugural month half over, Shelton is on pace for 108 swats, the stuff of pure fantasy, as much as the great woodsman himself. Then again, none of the 14,303 patrons at Comerica Park on an overcast holiday could have been surprised to see his fourth-inning thunderclap.

The ball stopped after 408 feet. The redhead's legend, however, is still soaring.

"Nothing impresses me anymore with him," said Brandon Inge of Shelton. "He's shown me everything. He's a stud."

In St. Louis, Albert Pujols is givingShelton a run for his money.

Deck by deck, swing by swing, Pujols used his last three plate appearances to provide the Cincinnati Reds and a sellout crowd an Easter Sunday tour of new Busch Stadium.

Not only did Pujols make some history, he turned what might have ended as a deflating loss into an memorable 8-7 win.

Pujols extended the most impressive start of his career with three home runs worth five RBIs against three pitchers Sunday. The first, good for a 4-4 fourth-inning tie, smacked so hard against the Casino Queen Party Porch it could be heard miles away in the press box. The second bore into the lower left-field seats for a 6-4 seventh-inning lead.

The last shot, on a ninth-inning fastball from Reds reliever David Weathers, crashed eight rows deep into the third deck some 441 feet away. It turned a 7-6 deficit into a complicated, inspired reversal.

Pujols also had a simple request: "Hopefully, tomorrow I'll get three more and forget about today."

The way baseballs are flying out of parks, that may just happen.