Albert Pujols made history on Friday night, collecting his 3,000th career hit with a base hit off of Mike Leake in the fifth inning of the Angels’ contest against the Mariners. The Angels veteran first baseman had been hovering around No. 3,000 for several innings after logging his 2,999th hit during Thursday’s 12-3 win against the Orioles.
At 38 years old, Pujols is the 32nd major-league hitter (and second Dominican-born player) to produce at least 3,000 hits over the course of his career, though no one has crossed that particular threshold since Adrian Beltre did it with the Rangers in 2017. He’s currently tied with Roberto Clemente at exactly 3,000 hits; the next-highest on the all-time list is Al Kaline, with 3,007.
This the second big milestone the slugger has reached in the last calendar year, too, as he clubbed his 600th career home run -- a grand slam -- last June. His 3,000 hits and 600 homers put him in rare company: only Hank Aaron (3,771 hits, 755 home runs), Willie Mays (3,283 hits, 660 home runs) and Alex Rodriguez (3,115 hits, 696 home runs) have duplicated the feat.