Albert Pujols Is Fourth Player to 700 Home Runs

Pujols averaged more than 40 homers per year with the Cardinals from 2001 through 2011, slugging .617 overall. Then he left for a $240 million contract with the Angels, and averaged just 23 homers per year with a .448 slugging percentage across the 10-year deal. The Angels released him last May, and he finished the 2021 season with the Dodgers.

Yet while Pujols batted just .256 with the Angels — compared to .328 before that — his presence always loomed for opposing pitchers, especially with runners on base. Pujols, who trails only Aaron and Ruth on the career list for R.B.I., with 2,208, drove in at least 93 runs in six of his first eight seasons with the Angels.

“In the Anaheim days, obviously he didn’t hit for average, but I think R.B.I.s are a big thing, and he had over 100 R.B.I.s for a good stretch,” said the right-hander Taijuan Walker of the Mets. “He was always productive. He did his job to drive guys in, and that could be with a sac fly or a double he’d poke the other way. That’s what made it tough.”

Walker added his name to Pujols’s list with career home run No. 587 in September 2016. Walker, who was then with the Seattle Mariners, had held Pujols to one hit in 10 at-bats before then, but this was not his day.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/23/sports/baseball/albert-pujols-700-home-runs.html