In what will very likely end up being his final at-bat against the Chicago Cubs, Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols hit the 695th career of his illustrious career in dramatic fashion on Sunday afternoon.
Pujols came to bat with a runner on in the eighth inning in a 0-0 tie. He was a pinch hitter. Cue the fireworks:
That's career blast number 695 for Pujols. The all-time leaderboard now reads:
Barry Bonds, 762Hank Aaron, 755Babe Ruth, 714Alex Rodriguez, 696Albert Pujols, 695The homer, of course, was also a huge deal in the game on Sunday, propelling the Cardinals to yet another victory. They are now 3-0 in September after a 22-7 August and are 29-11 since the All-Star break. At the All-Star break, Pujols said that his biggest goal this season was to help bring another World Series championship to St. Louis. He's now hitting .373 with 10 homers in 83 at-bats since then.
"At the end of the day, knowing what you need to do, and hunt the pitch that you're looking for, and just try not to do too much," Pujols said (via stltoday.com). "There are nights that you're going to come through, and other nights that you don't. Well, the nights that you do you just enjoy, and that's what I'm going to enjoy tonight."
With this win and the Brewers' loss to the Diamondbacks on Sunday, the Cardinals' division lead has ballooned to 8 1/2 games.
Pujols' chase to 700 will continue on Monday when the Cardinals face the Nationals in Busch Stadium.
As for the Cubs' involvement in this equation with Pujols and the Cardinals, this was the final game of the season between the NL Central rivals. As such, it's the last time to see this matchup, unless he changes his mind on retirement. Pujols has perhaps terrorized the Cubs more than any other team in his career. The blast Sunday marked the 59th homer of his career against the Cubs in 701 at-bats. He only homered more times against the Astros, but remember the overlap of the Astros in the NL Central and then AL West (when Pujols played for the Angels). He hit 62 homers in 1117 at-bats against the Astros.
Finally, this was Pujols' third pinch-hit home run of the season. Among all this other stuff, he's now just one pinch-hit homer shy of the club record. Four times, a Cardinals player has hit four pinch-hit home runs in a season, most recently Jeremy Hazelbaker in 2016.
