Now in his 19th major league season, Albert Pujols still has the power and bat speed to hit a baseball a very long way.
Pujols on Saturday homered twice to increase his total to 641, had three RBIs and scored three runs to help the Los Angeles Angels beat the Baltimore Orioles 7-2.
The 39-year-old Pujols can still carry an offense pretty much by himself.
Photo: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY
“Others contributed, but Albert was the key contributor tonight,” manager Brad Ausmus said.
Pujols hit a two-run drive in the first inning and a solo shot in the fourth. He also singled and scored in a three-run sixth inning that made it 6-2.
“One of the best right-handed hitters of all time, right?” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. “He is who he is because of what he did today.”
Both home runs came against Dylan Bundy (1-5), who has yielded 11 long balls this season after serving up a major league-high 41 last year. Baltimore has allowed 83 homers, 19 more than any other big league team.
“Yeah, he got me twice today. You can’t make a mistake to him and I missed my spot on both pitches,” Bundy said. “Just a little bit on the first one — but the second one, I just lost command there and missed my spot by about a foot-and-a-half.”
Pujols has played in 35 games this year and has eight homers and 21 RBIs batting in the middle of the order.
“I have played well all season long,” he said. “Been putting a good swing on the ball for month-and-a-half right now.”
It was the 59th multi-homer game of Pujols’ career and the first since July 12 last year against Seattle.
The slugger is 19 home runs short of matching Willie Mays for fifth place on the career list. His 2,003 RBIs rank third behind Alex Rodriguez (2,086) and Hank Aaron (2,297), and his three hits gave him 3,110 — tied for 21st with Dave Winfield.
Shohei Ohtani had two hits and an RBI for Los Angeles in his fifth game this season. He is four for 21 since returning from the injured list following elbow surgery.
Matt Harvey started for Los Angeles and needed 93 pitches to get 12 outs. Luke Bard (1-1) followed with 1-2/3 scoreless innings.
Dwight Smith Jr hit a two-run homer for the Orioles, who went 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10.
The last three innings were played in the rain before only a small portion of the announced crowd of 21,106.
Also on Saturday, it was:
‧ Nationals 5, Dodgers 2
‧ Red Sox 9, Mariners 5
‧ Rays 7, Yankees 2
‧ Tigers 5, Twins 3 (Game 1)
‧ Twins 8, Tigers 3 (Game 2)
‧ Pirates 2, Cardinals 1
‧ Mets 4, Marlins 1
‧ White Sox 7, Blue Jays 2
‧ Athletics 3, Indians 2
‧ Phillies 7, Royals 0
‧ Padres 4, Rockies 3
‧ Astros 11, Rangers 4
‧ Braves 6, Diamondbacks 4
‧ Reds 5, Giants 4
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