The St. Louis Cardinals have been on a roll for a couple of months now. A large part of that has been the re-emergence of veteran slugger Albert Pujols. Last week, Pujols became just the fourth player in MLB history to hit 700 career home runs. On Sunday, he made some more history.
Pujols took Pittsburgh Pirates starter Roansy Contreras deep for his 23rd home run of the season in the 3rd inning of a 7-5 loss. The home run gave Pujols 2,214 career RBI's. That tied him with Babe Ruth for the second most in the history of baseball. Only Hank Aaron finished his career with more, driving in 2,297 runs.
Albert Pujols went 2-for-2 with a home run and three RBI Sunday. He also hit a two-run double off Contreras.
Pujols has been on fire during the second half of the season. 15 of his 23 home runs have come since the beginning of August. The Cardinals offense was struggling during September, including MVP front runner Paul Goldschmidt, and it was Pujols that kept things going.
It's truly special what Pujols is doing this year. Not many people believed he was going to reach the 700 club. But his scorching second half proved otherwise. He has the Cardinals in position to make a deep postseason run. St. Louis has already clinched the National League Central division. They will host the final wild card team during the first round of the playoffs. As of right now, that is the Philadelphia Phillies. But it could still end up being either the Milwaukee Brewers or San Diego Padres.
Considering Pujols' prowess in the playoffs, with how well he is hitting right now, the Cardinals could be dangerous.