Angels celebrate milestone, another win

hug,’ ” Pujols said. “So we all got in a circle and we got a group hug.”

The teams used special baseballs for the occasion and even replaced first base prior to the next pitch, but not before coach Alfredo Griffin held it aloft like a championship trophy.

In the stands, several fans displayed handmade signs of tribute and four guys jumped around in their commemorative T-shirts — one with a “3” on the chest and the other three each with a “0.”

The game was delayed for the accomplishment to be marked, and then the Angels returned to winning their fourth straight game, moving percentage points ahead of Houston for first place in the American League West and running their road record to a baseball-best 12-2.

A victory was the most fitting way for Pujols’ teammates to honor him. In the days leading up to No. 3,000, he repeatedly talked about being more concerned with the Angels’ success than his own history.

Entering Friday, Pujols had hits off 966 pitchers, an impressive list that literally runs from A (Arroyo) to Z (Zambrano).

He has hits against every big-league team and in all but one big-league stadium — the new place in Atlanta, but only because he never has played there. Nine stadiums in which Pujols had hits are no longer in use.

And yet Pujols on Friday wasn’t even the only person in Safeco Field with 3,000 career hits. Ichiro Suzuki, who this week began the transition from player to Seattle front-office executive for the remainder of the season, reached the milestone in 2016.

He recalled the occasion being “a weird moment” because 3,000 hits represents such a profound climb.

“Everybody kind of celebrates that moment together,” Ichiro said through an interpreter before the game. “The opposing team and your team really are kind of together.”

Sure enough, a few hours later, the Mariners gathered en masse to applaud Pujols.

At 38 years, 108 days, he is the 10th-youngest to reach 3,000.

The only other player to collect No. 3,000 as an Angel was Rod Carew in 1985.

With eight more hits, Pujols will move into baseball’s top 30. By the end of this season, he likely will be in the top 20.

On Friday, though, Pujols stood alone, on first base and atop a career at its loftiest height yet.

Photographs by Wally Skalij Los Angeles Times MIKE TROUT douses Albert Pujols with Gatorade after the game as the team celebrates the slugger getting his 3,000th hit.

ALBERT PUJOLS kisses his children after the game. Pujols, 38, became just the second player to record his 3,000th hit with the Angels, joining Rod Carew.