St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols hit the 694th home run of his career during Monday night’s game against the Cincinnati Reds, the first of his final series at Great American Ball Park.
The blast came on an 0-2 pitch from lefty reliever Ross Detwiler, who marks the 450th different pitcher Pujols has homered off of during his 22 seasons in the majors. That propels the 42-year-old past Barry Bonds for the MLB career lead in number of pitchers taken deep.
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The home run also moves Pujols two behind Alex Rodriguez for the fourth spot on the all-time home run leaderboard. The 11-time All-Star Pujols has previously been vocal about his pursuit of 700 total home runs, and thanks to his late-season surge the feat isn’t a far-fetched goal. He entered this Reds series with a .403 average and 1.288 OPS in the second half and has hit 15 home runs this season.
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The Cardinals sit atop the National League Central with a 74-54 record, six games ahead of the second-place Milwaukee Brewers. St. Louis takes on the Reds twice more before hosting the Chicago Cubs for a three-game series beginning Sept. 2.
(Photo: Kamil Krzaczynski / USA Today)