SEATTLE – In his 18th season, Albert Pujols collected No. 3,000 on Friday.
With two outs in the fifth, Pujols flared a low, 1-0 slider from Seattle's Mike Leake into shallow right field. He rounded first, clapped his hands, looked to the sky and shouted.
The teams used special baseballs for the occasion and even replaced first base before the next pitch.
"I'm aware of the legacy and the people that I tie and am on the same page right now," Pujols said. "But at the end of the day it's about winning a championship."
Entering Friday, Pujols had hits off 966 different pitchers, an impressive list that literally runs from A (Arroyo) to Z (Zambrano).
He has hits vs. every MLB team and in all but one MLB stadium — the new place in Atlanta, but he has never played there. Nine stadiums in which Pujols had hits are no longer in use.
At 38 years, 108 days, he is the 10th-youngest to reach 3,000. The only other player to collect No. 3,000 as an Angel was Rod Carew in 1985.
With eight more hits, Pujols will move into MLB's top 30. By the end of 2018, he likely will be in the top 20. By the end of his career, he figures to be in the top 10.
