Albert Pujols has a chance to make history. Can he reach 700 home runs in 6 weeks?
Math is math, and numbers don’t lie, but admit it: You just know in your heart he’s going to do it, right?
On Monday night in Chicago, Albert Pujols rocketed a home run to left center at Wrigley Field that gave the Cardinals a 1-0 win in the first game of their series against the Cubs. It was the 693rd home run of his career and, having victimized Drew Smyly, represented the 449th pitcher off of whom he has hit a home run, tying Barry Bonds’s Major League record.
With six weeks to go in the regular season, the race toward history is on, and no one is who has watched any part of Pujols’s career in St. Louis would dare doubt he’s going to get there.
His stretch as a Dodger last season represented a twist toward the end of one of baseball’s most storied careers. Seemingly gone was the often frustrated and more-than-occassionally curmudgeonly guy who pulled on a uniform for the Angels. In his place was a character his teammates and their fans called “Tio Albert” — a good humored good example who provided sporadic pop, chipping in 12 home runs.
That was roughly the persona he occupied through this season’s first half. Despite being named to the National League All-Star team as a commissioner’s selection, he was hitting only .215 with a .676 OPS when the first half drew to a close. Invited to the home run derby seemingly as an afterthought, he would upset top seeded Kyle Schwarber and force eventual champion Juan Soto to a swing-off in the second round
He was celebrated, patted on his back, and sent home from Los Angeles to what seemed destined to be a quiet and dignified victory lap. And yet, arriving in Cincinnati to start the second half, he’d clearly changed again.
Tio Albert was gone. The Machine — La Makina — was back.
More on Pujols’s recent tear
A three-hit game capped by a three-run home run in Toronto on July 27 put that game out of reach and bumped his season OPS from .698 to .741. It would be the last time to date he would dip below .700.
Pujols did muster one two-homer game in the first half, in Pittsburgh on May 22. One of those, though, came off a position player, thrown out to absorb a shellacking. That wasn’t the case in either of the two games he’s done so in the second half, on August 14 against the Brewers and this past Saturday in Arizona. The latter of those games capped a week in which he was named the co-NL Player of the Week (with teammate Paul Goldschmidt).
Entering Tuesday’s doubleheader in Chicago, his OPS reached .880. That would be his highest total since leaving St. Louis after the 2011 season.
Seven home runs in six weeks would scarcely be a sweat for prime Pujols. If he has indeed quantum leapt into his 42-year-old body with his abilities from the year he was 27, then the question is only how early in September a fan will need to secure tickets to guarantee he or she won’t show up too late to see the milestone.
Catching Rodriguez, magnitude of 700 homers
Maintaining a pace of seven homers in 10 games with a batting average over .500, though, would be a challenge even for Albert. For all of the unbelievable things he’s achieved, this recent stretch has been the best of his career — his entire career, at any point — by any measure. He hasn’t found the fountain of youth as much as it appears he’s been supplying it, but there are certain levels of red hot that are just too much to handle.
There are many in the game who are quietly — and, truth be told, loudly — hoping for Pujols to at least scratch across five more homers to reach 698 and squeeze past Alex Rodríguez into fourth place on the all-time list. That would, in the eyes of many, offer at least a little redemption to the post-steroids boom era that nonetheless carries its own cloud of suspicion despite the introduction of MLB’s testing regime.
Only three players — Barry Bonds, Henry Aaron and Babe Ruth — have ever reached 700. It’s among the most hallowed of statistical achievements in the game, and though Pujols is already firmly ensconced in the most inner circles of baseball lore, to reach that milestone while wearing the birds on the bat would be a perfect individual cap to a career that defies even the storybooks.
Plenty of golden chances for No. 5
With a stretch of games against the dregs of the National League in front of the Cardinals to close the season, opportunities will not be lacking. Despite his protestations of neutrality, his motivation isn’t lacking either. The math is not in his favor. It doesn’t seem likely to matter.
Not since Mark McGwire chased down Roger Maris in 1998 has watching one player in St. Louis felt like this. The idea of a reunion tour seemed nice in spring. Now it feels historic. It’s one more gift from Pujols to a fan base that’s already been given more than it could ever expect.
It’s history that may not ever be seen again. And it’s coming. Bet on it.
This story was originally published August 24, 2022 at 6:00 AM.