LOS ANGELES — Like he has so many times in his career, Albert Pujols came in clutch yet again. With his two home runs on Friday night against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Pujols became just the fourth player in baseball history to reach the 700 plateau.
Pujols crushed career home run No. 699 in the third inning off Dodgers starter Andrew Heaney, for a two-run blast. But he wasn't stuck on 699 for long.
In his very next at-bat in the fourth inning, Pujols made Dodgers reliever Phil Bickford the answer to a trivia question. Pujols destroyed a third-pitch slider from Bickford to left field to score Brendan Donovan and Tommy Edman for his second home run of the game, and the shot that got him into the 700 home run club.
Pujols joins Barry Bonds, Henry Aaron and Babe Ruth in the exclusive club, and is the first foreign-born player to reach the mark.
5 On Your Side's Mike Bush was actually at Dodger Stadium as a fan in the crowd and captured this video of the historic moment.
The entire Cardinals dugout came out to celebrate the accomplishment, and the Los Angeles crowd cheered and applauded during Pujols' entire trot around the bases.
With his two-homer night, Pujols is now up to 21 home runs on the year for the Cardinals. It's the 18th season of his career where he's registered at least 20 home runs.