Albert Pujols and Reggie Jackson hit home run #500 while in an Angel uniform. September 17, 1984 and April 22, 2014.
Hitting 500 home runs in a career is a major milestone with only 27 players reaching this milestone. The Angels have had two players accomplish this feat while wearing an Angel uniform.
Reggie Jackson A.K.A. “Mr. October” accomplished this feat late in the 1984 season when he went deep off of Royals pitcher Bud Black. Jackson went deep in the bottom of the seventh of a 10-1 Angels loss to the Royals. It was a pivotal game as the Halos were trying to catch the Royals and win their second AL West title in three years, but this game was over early as the Angels fell behind 5-0 after four innings and were trailing 7-0 in the seventh when Jackson connected to right field for his historic home run.
Pujols’ 500th home run was in a little bit better situation as the Angels actually won the game in the nation’s capital Washington D.C. against the Washington Nationals. Pujols touched the Nationals’ Taylor Jordan for home run 499 in the first inning which gave the Angels a 3-0 lead. Pujols’ blast to left drove in both J.B. Shuck and Mike Trout who had reached base on a double and an error respectively.
With the Angels still leading 4-2 in the top of the 5th inning Pujols came up again against Jordan and hit a line drive that just cleared the wall in left-center and Pujols became the 26th member of the 500 home run club. This was a two-run shot that drove in Trout to extend the Angels lead to 6-2 and they would go on to win 7-2.
Pujols has not stopped there as he hit his 600th career home run in 2017 against the Minnesota Twins. Right now Pujols has 625 homers and is only six homers away from passing Ken Griffey Jr. to move into sixth place on baseball’s all-time home run list.
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