PITTSBURGH — Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols moved into sole possession of fourth place on MLB’s all-time home run list when he hit the 697th home run of his illustrious career in Sunday afternoon’s 4-3 win over the Pirates. It was his second homer in as many days.
Pujols, who came into the game tied for fourth with Alex Rodriguez, now trails only three MLB titans in the all-time home run race: Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755) and Babe Ruth (714). The 42-year-old slugger also pulled within three home runs of 700, something only the three aforementioned sluggers have done in the history of the sport.
Like No. 696, the tiebreaking 697th was clutch. With the Cardinals trailing, 2-1, in the ninth inning, Pujols sent a 2-0 fastball from Chase De Jong to straightaway center field to give St. Louis the lead for the first time in the game.
Pujols announced in Spring Training that this season — his 22nd at the Major League level — will be his last one. Throughout his stirring home run surge, Pujols has been adamant that he will retire following the season regardless of how many homers he has.
Pujols’ push towards 700 home runs became a possibility after he got hot over the second part of the season. Back in St. Louis, where he won three MVP Awards and two World Series titles from 2001-11, Pujols looked like a shadow of his former self early in the season when he had just a pair of home runs in April and May and went homerless in June. However, he came alive in July (three home runs) and terrorized pitchers all throughout August (eight home runs).
A major aspect of Pujols’ success this season has been his ability to consistently crush left-handed pitching. He hit 12 of his first 16 home runs in 2022 off lefties. As of Sept. 5, Pujols ranked third in all of baseball in OPS against left-handed pitching (1.202), trailing only teammate Paul Goldschmidt (1.374) and Braves third baseman Austin Riley (1.212).
In addition to homering off all 30 MLB teams in his career, Pujols has homered from all nine spots in the batting order, in every inning, on every day of the week and in every count during an at-bat. He’s had 60 two-homer games and four three-home run games.
.