Future first-ballot Hall of Famer Albert Pujols entered the 2022 season with little chance to join the exclusive 700 home run club in Major League Baseball. The only current members are Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755) and Babe Ruth (714). Pujols was brought back by the Cardinals at age 42. He simply hadn't been a very productive hitter since 2019 and was 21 homers shy of 700. Well, Pujols has found the Fountain of Youth and is currently one of the hottest hitters in the majors, and it's no longer impossible tha t he reaches 700. SportsLine offers odds.
In August, Pujols is hitting a ridiculous .472 with seven homers and 14 RBI to help the red-hot Cardinals start to pull away atop the NL Central Division. Over his past 10 games, Pujols is slugging 1.300, the highest slugging percentage in a 10-game span in the three-time NL MVP's career. His seven homers this month are more than the supposedly-contending Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox have as teams.
Pujols' OPS+ this season (146) is slightly higher than his career number (144). Among batters with at least 200 plate appearances in a season at age 40 or older, Pujols's OPS+ ranks eighth; among 42-year-olds, it trails only Barry Bonds' 2007 number of 169.
Pujols went yard Monday night – his sixth homer in his past seven games — for the only run in a 1-0 victory at the Cubs. That's 14 dingers on the season, meaning he is seven shy of 700. He hit the homer Monday off Drew Smyly, the 449th diffe rent pitcher he's taken deep, tying Bonds' record. 'The homer was Pujols' 30th at Wrigley Field in his 98th game there.