If first you don’t succeed try, try again. Albert Pujols gets hit #3,000

On Thursday night the stage was set for Albert Pujols to get his 3,000th hit after get hit #2,999 on a second inning double.  Unfortunately for Angel fans hoping to see history it did not happen.

However, tonight in Seattle, Albert Pujols became the 32nd player in baseball history to record 3,000 hits with an opposite-field single to right field in the fifth inning off the Mariners Mike Leake.  With the hit he also becomes only the fourth player in MLB History to hit 600 or more home runs and reach the 3,000 hit plateau.

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Pujols is the second Angel player to collect his 3,000th hit in an Angel uniform with Rod Carew being the only other person to do so.  Carew recorded his 3,000th hit in Anaheim on August 4th, 1985 on an opposite-field single off of the Minnesota Twins’ Frank Viola.

In his first two at-bats against Leake, Pujols lined out sharply to Mariners shortstop Jean Segura.  Then he walked on a 3-2 pitch in the fourth inning after a 10-pitch at-bat and would come around to score on an Andrelton Simmons single giving the Angels a 1-0 lead.

However in the fifth inning with the Angels leading 2-0, Pujols came up with two outs and delivered his historic hit on a 1-0 pitch by Mike Leake.  After Pujols reached first base he hugged first base coach Alfredo Griffin.  The rest of the Angels team came pouring out of the dugout led by Mike Trout and catcher Rene Rivera.  Pujols’ family including his wife Deidre were on hand in Seattle to watch #5 reach another major milestone.

After the short celebration ended Shohei Ohtani would follow with a double to score Justin Upton to give the Angels a 3-0 lead. In his fourth at-bat Pujols popped up to third base in the seventh inning.

Pujols did not stop there.  In his final at-bat of the night Pujols delivered a two-run single to left scoring Justin Upton and Mike Trout to extend the Angels lead to 5-0.  Hit #3,001 moves Pujols past Roberto Clemente into 31st place on the MLB all-time hit list.  He has a chance to move into the top 25 on the all-time hit list within the next couple of months and possibly even reach the top 20 by the end of the season.

Pujols would need 111 more hits to move up to number 20 on the all-time hit lost which would move him past Dave Winfield who has 3,110 hits.  With 116 more hits Pujols would be in 19th place on the all-time hit list by passing Alex Rodriguez (3,115 hits)

Next up for Pujols Is Al Kaline (3,007 hits), followed by Wade Boggs at (3,010 hits), Cap Anson at (3,011 hits), Rafael Palmeiro (3,020 hits) and Lou Brock (3,023) all could be passed by the end of May or early June.

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Also within reach by the All-Star break for Pujols is Rod Carew who is 25th all-time at 3,053 hits and then Ricky Henderson at 3,055 hits and Craig Biggio at 3,060 hits.  Adrian Beltre (3,075 hits currently) of the Texas Rangers would be next however he is still active so it will be hard to catch him until he decides to retire.  Then it would be the recently retired Ichiro Suzuki who is also in reach at 3,089 hits in his MLB career.

Next: Albert Pujols takes one step closer to 3,000 hit

Not to be lost in the shuffle is the fact that the Angels won their fourth straight game and Garrett Richards had his best outing of the season throwing 6.2 innings of shutout baseball striking out eight and walking only two batters.  Richards only threw 86 pitches, 55 of which were strikes.  Justin Anderson threw 1.1 innings of scoreless relief before Jim Johnson closed it out with a scoreless ninth inning to clinch the 5-0 victory.

As for Pujols just sit back, relax, and enjoy history in the making as Albert Pujols tries to ascend up the all-time hit list.