Legendary first baseman Albert Pujols continues to slowly climb his way up the all-time home run leaderboards for the St. Louis Cardinals and added to it in a big way in Thursday’s game against the Colorado Rockies.
Thursday’s game was a rout in the Cardinals’ favor from the very beginning, and Pujols only added to that with a massive grand slam in the bottom of the third inning to extend the lead to 10-0.
HOME RUN NO. 690 FOR ALBERT PUJOLS IS OH SO GRAND!!!
TV: Bally Sports Midwest
Stream: https://t.co/T19nzOKKEf#STLCards pic.twitter.com/LPQfcwchmi— Bally Sports Midwest (@BallySportsMW) August 18, 2022
Pujols was met with a huge celebration from his teammates and proceeded to take a curtain call while the cheers came in from Cardinals fans at Busch Stadium.
This home run put Pujols to 690 home runs in his career, only six behind Alex Rodriguez for fourth place in the history of the MLB and ten away from the historic 700 home run club. Pujols already announced that he will retire at the end of the 2022 MLB season, so he will certainly need to act with some urgency if he wants to catch Rodriguez on the leaderboard.
Although he is clearly not the player that he once was in the prime of his career, Pujols has been extremely serviceable in his 22nd year in the major league, hitting for .251./.330/.460 with 11 home runs on the season . It makes it even more special that Pujols is playing his last season with the team that he was initially drafted by.
St. Louis currently holds a playoff position atop the NL Central, and it would be amazing to see Pujols be able to compete for a World Series ring in his final season in the big leagues.
Most players are out of the league way before Pujols age, but Thursday is yet another example that the old man still has a little gas left in the tank.
As a St. Louis Cardinals supporter on occasion, I love seeing my guy Albert Pujols chase 700.
690 is a grand slam.
— Vinnie Parise (@VinnieParise) August 18, 2022
I think I’m at the point where I’m willing to believe he will hit #700 this season. #STLCards pic.twitter.com/ptjhBOI0E0
— David Amelotti (@DavidAmelottiTV) August 18, 2022
.@PujolsFive – The Machine whirs to life once more. 690. Incredible. @Cardinals made such a good choice to bring him home. What a year. https://t.co/POMcRVpPOu
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) August 18, 2022
That’s now 1.100 OPS against lefties Albert Pujols to you https://t.co/CAO7s43McE
— Kevin Knocke (@KevinKnocke) August 18, 2022
One of the real greats. https://t.co/ou5vcU26lX
— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) August 18, 2022