Cardinals Win on 10th Inning Albert Pujols Walk-Off Sac Fly (Video)
Albert Pujols added another storybook moment to his career on Tuesday night as he hit a walk-off sacrifice fly in the 10th inning to lift the Cardinals to a 3–2 victory over the Padres.
A sac fly was all the 42-year-old St. Louis slugger needed to drive in Tommy Edman, after Edman stole third base earlier in the at-bat. Pujols then drilled a pitch up in the zone into deep left field, which was enough to bring his teammate home.
After the ball sprung off his bat, Pujols took a few steps down the first-base line before pointing to the Cardinals dugout and smiling. His teammates then streamed out of dugout to celebrate, swarming him on the field.
The walk-off was Pujols’ 15th as a Cardinal, moving him above Ken Boyer and into second place in franchise history.
“I take my approach out there and really trust my work and trust what I practice day in and day out,” Pujols said, per John Denton of MLB.com. “Obviously, having [Edman] on third now, I just want to stay away from the ground-ball double play, which I hold that record. I just got a good pitch to hit and I put it up in the air, and it was deep enough for him to score from third base.”
Now in his 22nd—and final—MLB season, Pujols seems to be embracing every aspect of the game. He’s already stolen a base and made his pitching debut this year, in addition to hitting four more home runs, bringing his career total to 683 homers.
Although the sun may be setting on his Hall of Fame career, Pujols is showing that he plans to get everything he can out his final season before hanging up his jersey for good.
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