Albert Pujols hits career homers 699 and 700

LOS ANGELES — After Albert Pujols additional solidified his baseball greatness by bashing two lengthy balls into the Southern California night time — vaulting him into the unique 700 Home Run Club — he high-fived shut good friend Adrian Beltré, celebrated along with his Cardinals teammates, then retreated to a tunnel the place the famous person allowed his feelings to pour from his each pore.

In that tunnel, simply steps away from the Cardinals dugout, the serious-minded slugger, who spoke usually this season about wishing he had been capable of take pleasure in this Hall of Fame-bound journey extra, lastly dropped his guard and surrendered to his emotions. The calm and cool proven on the sector morphed right into a calamity of feelings down beneath the dugout. Pujols, seemingly overwhelmed by the magnitude of the second, squatted and bawled.

“I didn’t control them,” Pujols mentioned of his feelings after the sport as he was surrounded by his household. “If you see the video of the homer, I went down into the tunnel and that’s when I let my emotions out.”

Cardinals supervisor Oliver Marmol, Pujols’ shut good friend and somebody who pushed for the slugger to be signed with every week left in Spring Training, glanced down the tunnel and noticed a squatting Pujols along with his head in his arms. Marmol, somebody who has recognized Pujols for greater than 15 years and lives in a St. Louis-area home owned by the slugger, mentioned seeing that kind of uncooked emotion from somebody who has completed a lot can be his lasting reminiscence of the historic night time.

“Him, by himself — with no cameras — I just sat there and watched him a little bit. I’m not sure what was exactly going through his head, but he was taking it all in. He was crouched down and his hands were in his face. It wasn’t a part of the show and everything that was going on [on the field]. It was him realizing all he had just accomplished, and it was pretty damn cool.”

The 42-year-old Pujols, who has mentioned that is the ultimate season of his 22-year career, joined Barry Bonds (762 house runs), Hank Aaron (755) and Babe Ruth (714) as the one sluggers in AL/NL historical past to hit at the very least 700 lengthy balls in his career. Pujols and Aaron are the one two with at the very least 3,000 hits and 700 house runs. Like Aaron, Pujols bought to the 700 membership with out a 50-home run season.

After circling the bases, Pujols went straight over to Beltré for a high-five by the netting. He was then greeted outdoors of the dugout by his Cardinals teammates. Not solely did the group at Dodger Stadium give him a standing ovation, the Cardinals slugger was greeted with chants of “Pu-jols! Pu-jols! Pu-jols” and “Al-bert! Al-bert! Al-bert!”

Pujols mentioned it was becoming and particular for him to hit the house run in Los Angeles — the spot he spent the earlier 11 seasons and the place his kids now dwell. Hitting the 2 house runs in Los Angeles allowed his household to be readily available for the historic night time.

“What a special night,” Pujols mentioned. “To have my family in town and to do it at Dodger Stadium. I said it earlier, my joy, pretty much, of this game came back last year [while playing for the Dodgers] and being in the postseason. It’s pretty special with the Dodgers fans here, and I get both sides of this. [The Dodgers] get to enjoy this and I get to do it with a Cardinals uniform, which makes it even more special. I’m just thanking God.”

Pujols hit No. 699 towards left-handed pitcher Andrew Heaney within the third inning and Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts went to the bullpen for right-hander Phil Bickford earlier than Pujols stepped to the plate. He then he smashed one other lengthy ball off Bickford to maneuver into the No. 700 membership.

Asked what message he might need for Bickford, his Dodgers teammate final season, Pujols mentioned: “I’m going to tell him thank you for hanging that slider!”

Following Friday’s two house runs, Pujols has 500 house runs off right-handed pitchers and 200 off left-handed pitchers.

Pujols additionally hit his 499th and five hundredth house runs in the identical sport for the Angels towards the Nationals in D.C. on April 22, 2014. Both of Friday’s house runs had been no-doubters the second they left Pujols’ famed two-toned bat: The blast off Heaney left the bat at 108 mph and traveled 434 ft – his fourth-longest house run of the season and one that will have been a house run in all 30 MLB parks, per Statcast. On the 700th house run, Pujols drilled a center-cut 80.8 mph slider from Bickford excessive into the LA night time (5.9 seconds of grasp time) for a house run that traveled 389 ft.

Friday’s house runs are Pujols’ twentieth and twenty first of the season. The veteran slugger joins Aaron (20) and Bonds (19) as the one gamers with at the very least 18 seasons of 20 or extra homers.

It was his fourth multi-home run sport of the season and the 61st time he has hit at the very least two house runs in a sport.

“I just had a lot of sensations and I told AP after the game that I almost cried,” mentioned Cardinals beginning pitcher Jose Quintana, who has confronted Pujols and is now a teammate of his following an Aug. 1 commerce. “I was trying to keep my focus on the game, but what Albert did was amazing. He’s a great, he’s a legend and I’m never going to forget this night.”

Pujols’ dinger within the third inning prolonged his AL/NL file to 454 pitchers he has homered off of throughout his career, and he pushed that quantity to 455 within the fourth inning off Bickford. He got here into the season second to Bonds (449), however he handed him on Aug. 29 in Cincinnati and has continued to increase the file with a flurry of post-All-Star break house runs.

“At first, I was upset that I gave up the home run,” Bickford. “When the group reacted, seeing all the grins, it was a really particular second for MLB and Albert Pujols can be some of the superb folks I’ve ever met. After I bought over being upset at giving up the house run, towards the very finish of it, it was clearly a particular second.

”He’s the nicest man ever,” Bickford added, referring to the connection he constructed with Pujols when the slugger performed 85 video games with the Dodgers – and hit 12 house runs – final season. “He’s a big old teddy bear. He’s someone that you just have nothing but great things to say about. He’s a very kind person, anybody that meets him I’m sure would say he’s excellent.”

Pujols hit house run No. 698 on Sept. 16 at St. Louis’ Busch Stadium to assist the Cardinals rally from a three-run deficit and defeat the Reds.

Pujols went 0-for-9 within the subsequent three video games, stopping him from pulling nearer to 700 in entrance of sellout crowds at Busch Stadium. Some 94,977 followers packed Busch Stadium for Saturday’s doubleheader in hopes of seeing Pujols go on a run to 700. Another 47,909 followers – comprising the Cardinals’ twenty sixth sellout of the season and the sixth-largest crowd within the 16-year historical past of Busch Stadium III – attended Sunday’s sport solely to see Pujols and the Cardinals get shut out.

Earlier within the week, when the Cardinals had been in certainly one of their worst offensive slumps whereas dealing with the Padres in San Diego, Pujols insisted that he wasn’t chasing 700 house runs. He additionally mentioned that he can be totally content material along with his place within the historical past of baseball even when he didn’t get to 700 house runs. What introduced him again for a twenty second season — and again to St. Louis, he insisted — was the possibility to win a 3rd World Series proper.

“I’m not chasing anything,” Pujols mentioned adamantly on Tuesday. “I’ve by no means chased any numbers and 22 years later I’m undoubtedly not going to chase something. In my career, I’ve been so blessed with all the pieces that I’ve completed in my life.

“What I’m chasing right now is another ring,” Pujols continued. “That’s what I’m chasing for the City of St. Louis and for our fans and that’s why I signed back this year. Going back to St. Louis, I knew we were going to have a great ballclub and hopefully get the chance (to win a championship) and hopefully finish this chapter that I started 21 years ago.”

No. 699 was the sixth time up to now seven house runs {that a} Pujols lengthy ball had been to both tie the sport or put the Cardinals within the lead. Also, there may be this statistic to again up how necessary Pujols has been to the Cardinals’ ascension to the highest of the NL Central: The Cardinals are 16-1 within the video games through which Pujols had homered and 4-0 within the situations when he clubbed two house runs in a sport.

“This is what he’s known for — doing big things in big moments — and I told the club afterward during our toast is he’s helping us win and his whole thing before coming back and signing was, ‘I can help you win a championship.’” Marmol mentioned. “This is pretty special to be a part of this 700th home run as he’s helping us win. And for him to do it in this Cardinals uniform makes it more special.”

Among his main milestone house runs, Pujols blasted his first house run (2001), his one centesimal (2003) and five hundredth (2014) whereas enjoying on the highway. He now has 466 homers as a Cardinal, 222 as an Angel and 12 with the Dodgers.

Homers No. 699 and 700 had been the twenty first and twenty second of Pujols’ career towards the Dodgers and his 18th and nineteenth at Dodger Stadium — one of many 40 previous and current MLB ballparks he has homered in. Having his household readily available, he mentioned, performed a serious function in his feelings pouring out in that tunnel close to the Cardinals dugout.

“Why [so much emotion]? Because of this, my beautiful family,” Pujols mentioned. “After the Lord, this is who I play for. They’ve been walking through this journey and through the ups and downs, through the cries, the hurt and the injuries and knowing they have my back. Them being a part of this history means everything to me.”

MLB.com Dodgers reporter Juan Toribio contributed to this story.