Angels slugger Albert Pujols had a rather unique night on Tuesday during the course of an 8-6 Angels win. His box score line reveals a great night: 3-2-3-6. And it was, as he hit two homers.
Here's the second shot:
Vintage Pujols right there. This marks just the fourth time in his career that he had at least two home runs and six RBI in a game. The last time was back in 2009, when he was the biggest wrecking ball in the league.
Also, that was Pujols' 579th career home run, so he's zeroing in on the all-time top 10. He's currently 11th, and it's Mark McGwire in 10th at 583. Frank Robinson is ninth at 586, so expect Pujols to move into ninth place in baseball history before the end of the season. Then next year he'll have 600 in his sights.
Also, Pujols has a chance to move into the top 20 in RBI. At 1,769, he's 43 away from Robinson for 20th.
It wasn't just the homers and RBI on display Tuesday, though. We also saw Pujols' toughness:
Pujols would stay in the game after taking that beanball. We can probably also throw in that his level-headedness was on display, because the number of players who would hit two three-run homers, take a pitch to the face and then start a fight is higher than zero. Probably a lot higher, despite the fact that it was obviously not on purpose.
So it was a weird, but overall great, night for Mr. Pujols.
