Pujols joins 3,000-hit club
SEATTLE — Los Angeles Angels slugger Albert Pujols got his 3,000th hit, reaching the mark with a broken-bat single Friday night against Seattle and becoming the 32nd player in major league history to join the exclusive club.
Pujols dumped the single into shallow right field in the fifth inning against Mike Leake. It came on Pujols’ sixth attempt after getting to 2,999 a day earlier.
Pujols received a standing ovation from the crowd at Safeco Field and was given the baseball and first base as a memento. His teammates all greeted him on the field before action resumed. The Angels won the game 5-0, and Pujols collected hit No. 3,001 in the ninth inning with a two-run single.
“I was really excited, but at the same time you still have a game you need to play and you still need to focus to win that game,” Pujols said. “That’s what I told those guys. Let’s go win that game so it can taste a little better with a win.”
The 38-year-old Pujols nearly got the mark in the first inning, but his hard liner was right at shortstop Jean Segura.
Pujols walked on a 3-2 pitch leading off the fourth inning after fouling off four two-strike pitches.
Pujols joined Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Alex Rodriguez as the only players in baseball history with 3,000 hits and 600 homers.
He’s the first player to reach the mark since Adrian Beltre last year against Baltimore.
“I’m aware of the legacy and the people that I tie and am on the same page right now,” Pujols
Los Angeles’ Albert Pujols singles against the Seattle Mariners in the fifth inning of Friday’s game in Seattle. The hit was his 3,000th career hit.
said. “But at the end of the day it’s about winning a championship. Nothing would be more special than in September and October and playing in the playoffs and bringing a championship back to the city of Anaheim.”
Pujols reached the precipice of the milestone earlier this week in Anaheim, getting two hits against Baltimore on Wednesday night — including his 620th career homer — before getting No. 2,999 on a second-inning double Thursday night.
He then came to the plate three times with the chance to hit the mark in front of his standing home crowd. But Pujols couldn’t quite do it, eventually flying out to right and deflating his eager home fans in the eighth inning of the Angels’ 12-3 win.
“Trust me I wanted to do it last night. But it didn’t happen last night. It just happened tonight,” Pujols said.
Ichiro Suzuki reached 3,000 hits in 2016 and also accomplished it on the road.
He was in the Seattle clubhouse on Friday night when Pujols joined the club. Elaine Thompson / AP
“More than the actual 3,000th hit, I remember the week prior,” Suzuki said through a translator before Friday’s game. “We were home for the whole week. I just had pinch-hitting opportunities. Every night was a pinch-hitting opportunity and that was really difficult. I was able to start on the last day of the road trip and getting it then.”
Pujols became the second Dominican player to reach 3,000 hits by joining Beltre. With Suzuki stepping away this week for the remainder of the 2018 season, Beltre is the only active player with more hits than Pujols.
And it may be a while before another player joins the club. The next closest player to 3,000 is Miguel Cabrera, who is more than 300 hits away. After Cabrera is Robinson Cano, nearly 600 hits away from the mark.
Few sluggers in baseball history have been more versatile than Pujols, who joins Aaron as the only players with 600 doubles and 600 homers among their 3,000 hits. He is seventh on baseball’s career homers list after hitting his 600th last season.