WATCH: Cardinals' Albert Pujols hits 700th home run of career originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
Albert Pujols has made his 700th trot around the bases.
The St. Louis Cardinals slugger went deep twice Friday at Dodger Stadium to become the fourth player in major league history to hit 700 career home runs.
Pujols, with two runners on, launched a 1-1 slider from Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Phil Bickford into the leftfield stands for the milestone home run. After crossing home plate, Pujols ran to the front row to high-five former Dodger Adrian Beltre. He then celebrated with his teammates and came out for a curtain call to acknowledge the Los Angeles crowd that was on their feet for each Pujols at-bat and gave the Hall of a Famer an ovation.
The 42-year-old enters an exclusive 700-club, joining Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755) and Babe Ruth (714). Pujols joins Aaron as the only players to have reached 3,000 hits and 700 home runs.
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Pujols hit his 699th home run in the third inning, a two-run shot off Andrew Heaney that gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.
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With the home runs off Bickford and Heaney, Pujols has now homered off 455 different pitchers, extending his MLB record.
Pujols entered the game having hit 12 homers in 42 games since Aug. 10, but he had been on a six-game drought since hitting No. 698 on Sept. 16. He ended that with a pair of no-doubters on Friday.
The three-time MVP now has 21 home runs this season, making it the 18th 20-plus homer season of his 22-year career and first since 2019.
Pujols has has other milestone multi-home-run games, having also hit his 499th and 500th homers in the same game in 2014.
Of his 700 home runs, Pujols hit 466 with the Cardinals, 222 with the Los Angeles Angels and 12 last season while with the Dodgers.
