Facing the Kansas City Royals, Albert Pujols went 4-for-5 with two homeruns and six RBIs. His offensive display also helped manager Tony La Russa reach his 2,500th career win.
“Is it special? Yeah, because I got family and friends here,” Pujols said. “But it’s nothing different than every day of my routine.”
Some routine.
Pujols finished with three home runs and 10 RBIs in the sweep, helping ignite an offense that outscored Kansas City 29-11 over three games.
“He does it over and over again,” La Russa said. “And it’s just impossible to describe how great he is. But when he does something like this, this is really great. It was the difference. His production is the difference in that game.”
It certainly was the difference in the fourth inning.
Trailing, 4-3, the Cardinals sent 13 men to the plate and came away with eight runs and an 11-4 lead.
But it was Pujols who supplied the back-breaking blast, a jolt that crashed off the windows of the Royals Hall of Fame building in left field, an estimated 423 feet from home plate.
Congratulations to Cardinals manager Tony La Russa who joins Connie Mack and John McGraw as as the only managers in baseball’s lengthy history to reach 2,500 wins. As for Albert Pujols, the dude is incredible. Barring injury or a sudden loss of power, Pujols could go down as one of the top three right-handed hitters of all time (the other two being Hank Aaron and Willie Mays).
We’re not even at the All-Star break yet and here’s Pujols’ stat line: in just 69 games Pujols is batting .329 with 26 homers, 56 runs, 68 RBIs, and has even chipped in 9 stolen bases. After much speculation about whether Pujols was entering the season with a nagging injury, its fairly obvious that he is all right. He’s having a career year and making guys like me who have him on their fantasy team more than pleased.
