St. Louis Cardinals star Albert Pujols is only five home runs away from reaching 700 career homers, but whether he attains that goal or not before the end of the 2022 MLB season, his legacy is safe. Apart from his surprising home run production since the start of the second half of the season, Pujols has also been showing incredible splits at the plate, with only New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge having a better OPS than the Cardinals veteran over the last 40 games of any player in the majors today.

Via MLB analyst Ryan M. Spaeder: “Albert Pujols is batting .364/.424/.755 over his last 40 games played. Here is a complete list of player who best his 1.179 OPS over their last 40 games: Aaron Judge – 1.295 That is it, just Judge.”

In Sunday's 2-0 home win over the Chicago Cubs, Albert Pujols pinched hit for outfielder Lars Nootbar in the eighth inning and proceeded to make a two-run homer to break the game's scoreless tie and give the Cardinals the lead for good. It was not just any other regular game-winning home run for Albert Pujols, of course. As mentioned earlier, that deep ball moved him a step closer to becoming a member one of the most exclusive statistical club not just in baseball but in all of sports.

There have only been three players in the history of Major League Baseball who managed to hit at least 700 home runs: Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, and Babe Ruth. Albert Pujols has plenty of games left to cover the needed ground to get to 700. His next homer would tie him with Alex Rodriguez for fourth-most all time.