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Prior to the All-Star break, Cardinals legend Albert Pujols looked like a player slinking toward his impending retirement, slashing .215/.301/.376 with six home runs and 20 RBIs. But after receiving an All-Star invitation—a well-deserved reward for a certain Hall of Fame career—Pujols absolutely took off in the second half of the season and has put together a campaign to remember.
In the second half, Pujols has hit .323/.388/.715 posting 18 home runs and 48 RBIs. After the first few months of the year, it seemed unthinkable that Pujols would reach the 700 home run mark, a milestone previously only accomplished by three all-time greats: Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth. Pujols finished the regular season with 703 homers for his career, and the 42-year-old slugger played like an MVP throughout the summer as St. Louis took control of the NL Central.
Pujols is a tinkerer, like so many of the great hitters in baseball. Just days before the All-Star break, he made a slight adjustment to his approach at the plate that seems to have helped unlock the late-career surge.
“Pujols began toying with the idea of starting his hands slightly lower and holding the bat marginally more upright in order to shorten his path through the strike zone and potentially sync up more consistently with the high leg kick he had begun incorporating more regularly the prior summer,” ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez wrote about the Cardinals legend.
After trying out the adjustment and recording a pair of hits, he stuck with it. The adjustment is barely noticeable, but it has made a world of difference for Pujols.
“It’s just a feeling, bro,” Pujols told Gonzalez. “It’s all about feeling.”
Now, he enters the playoffs, not as a future Hall of Famer hanging onto a roster spot, but a centerpiece of an NL contender. Even with this rejuvenation, Pujols says he’s happy to ride off into the sunset.
“I can tell you that I can put my mind into next year and prepare myself, and I can still play two or three more years if I want to,” Pujols told ESPN. “But I’m tired. I’m done. This is it. This is where Albert Pujols’s career ends.”
