Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Pujols joins 3,000 hit club
He joins 31 others, is 1 of 4 with 600 HR
SEATTLE — The hit wasn’t his most majestic, more well placed than well struck.
But there was no denying the significance of the single, this accomplishment about an accumulation of moments rather than one crowning instant.
In his 18th season and 17 years, one month and four days after his first career hit, Albert Pujols collected No. 3,000 on Friday, overshadowing a 5-0 Angels victory and everything the game included.
Like Garrett Richards’ 6 2⁄3 scoreless innings, Shohei Ohtani’s two hits and the bullpen’s tidy work finishing up. Even the two- run single Pujols later add- ed for career hit No. 3,001.
This game, instead, was all about the first hit of the night for a player who was nicknamed “The Machine” during his time with St. Louis and has continued to grind along in Anaheim.
Pujols became the 32nd member of the 3,000-hit club and just the fourth with 600 or more home runs as well, joining Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Alex Rodriguez.
With two outs in the fifth, Pujols flared a low, 1-0 slider from Seattle’s Mike Leake into shallow right field. He rounded first, clapped his hands, looked to the sky and shouted.
Then he clapped his hands emphatically again and again and again — three times in total.
Play halted as the Angels came out of their dugout, timidly at first and orderly throughout, congregating around Pujols for a procession of hugs and helmet slaps.
The teams used special baseballs for the occasion and even replaced first base before 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 Tshirts — one with a “3” on the chest and the other three each with a “0.”
The game was delayed just long enough 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 different 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 every baseball player can appreciate.
“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 along the railing of their dugout 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 all-time top 30. By the end of this season, he likely will be in the top 20. By the end of his career, he figures to be in the top 10.
On Friday, though, Pujols stood alone, on first base and atop a career at its loftiest height yet.