Another day, another Albert Pujols home run, and another St. Louis Cardinals victory.
The 83-58 Cards are now eight games in front of the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central and are marching towards the postseason.
They defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-3, on Sunday, and all four runs came in the top of the ninth.
Pujols, as it has happened a lot recently, was very much involved in the action.
With the score 3-1 in favor of the Bucs, the living legend homered against Chase De Jong to tie the game at 3-3.
Tyler O’Neill later went yard in the same inning to turn around the score, 4-3.
Pujols’ blast, however, was the one that received the most media attention.
It was the 697th of his storied career, and it helped him break a tie with Alex Rodriguez on the all-time leaderboard.
.@PujolsFive keeps climbing the list. 💪 pic.twitter.com/qFeWGW9Cp8
— MLB (@MLB) September 11, 2022
Now, Pujols is in sole possession of fourth place: only Babe Ruth (714), Henry Aaron (755) and Barry Bonds (762) have more.
Since Pujols will retire after the 2022 season, he won’t catch any of those names.
A Race Against Time
His race, however, is against time.
He wants to become the fourth player ever to hit at least 700 round-trippers.
He still has about three weeks to hit three home runs.
Given that most of his playing time comes against lefties by now, it’s not a lock.
However, he has been on a tear recently and can certainly pull it off.
For the season, Pujols is hitting .266/.338/.528 with 18 home runs and 48 RBI.
He entered the season needing 21 for 700.
He is now just three away.
The whole baseball community will be rooting hard for one of the most respected players in the game.
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