Albert Pujols joins 700 Club with home run day
Published by Oculus News Network
September 24 , 2022 Saturday
LOS ANGELES — Albert Pujols have become the fourth member of the 700 home run club on Friday night time, and he did so in emphatic style, launching home runs in the front of a packed Dodger Stadium crowd.
The first homer — a 434-foot, -run blast to left field — came off Dodgers left-hander Andrew Heaney in the third inning. The 2nd one turned into a three-run shot inside the fourth off righty Phil Bickford. By that point the St. Louis Cardinals held a 5-0 lead, and Pujols had pushed in all of his team’s runs
Upon crossing domestic plate after his 700th homer, Pujols raced to the backstop to embrace Adrian Beltre, his longtime rival and considered one of his closest buddies. Shortly thereafter, he determined Yadier Molina and wrapped him in an emphatic hug.
Pujols, winding down the final season of a Hall of Fame career, joins Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth inside the seven hundred domestic run club. He is the best considered one of them to hit Nos. 699 and 700 on the identical night. Pujols now has 2,208 RBIs for his career, 2nd at the all-time listing in the back of Aaron’s 2,297.
It’s becoming, perhaps, that the 42-year-old detailed hitter completed an amazing milestone here at Dodger Stadium, the location that he has often stated played a huge element in energizing him to play one very last season in 2022.
Pujols joined the Dodgers closing May, quickly after his launch from the Los Angeles Angels, and became reinvigorated even as serving as a element-time starter and late-game pinch-hitter during the last 5-plus months. He turned into effective against left-handers and became a primary have an effect on in a veteran-encumbered clubhouse that lovingly referred to as him “Tio Albert.”
Before the game, the Dodgers played a montage for Pujols, with Julio Urias, Hanser Alberto, Justin Turner, Max Muncy, Will Smith and Dave Roberts imparting heartfelt messages. Pujols and Molina were talented golf bags to commemorate their final seasons, then Pujols grabbed the mic to thank the Dodgers’ fans and their employer.
“It introduced me so much pleasure, not simply to me, however to my family,” Pujols, addressing the media earlier than the game, stated while requested what the atmosphere at Dodger Stadium intended to him. “I assume it delivered something inside me, that little boy over again that was lacking that part of the game.”
Pujols’ final season has visible him play some of his excellent baseball down the stretch. After his 2-for-four night time Friday, he is batting .319/.381/.696 with 15 home runs and 38 RBIs in 48 second-half of video games. His 15 homers and 1.076 OPS are both tied for the second-best inside the majors in that span, in the back of handiest Yankees famous person Aaron Judge. The surge also has coincided with the Cardinals practically running faraway from the relaxation of the National League Central.
Pujols started out this season as a platoon option at DH, but he has morphed into one of the Cardinals’ maximum steady hitters and is essentially an regular player as they undertaking into the postseason.
Pujols now has 21 domestic runs at the year, giving him 18 20-homer seasons for his profession, third-most in history at the back of most effective Aaron (20) and Bonds (19). He joins Ted Williams as the most effective players to hit 20 home runs in both their first and very last seasons. He owns the maximum multihomer video games after turning forty two in essential league history, with four.
“I don’t chase numbers,” Pujols stated earlier this week. “I didn’t chase a hundred, and I were given 698. It’s the same component — trusting my process.”