St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols was on base four times against the Chicago Cubs on Friday. His damage was caused via a pair of walks, one clearly intentional, a double that was played into a triple by Cubs left fielder Alfonso Soriano and Pujols’ world-leading 32nd home run of the season.
Not only is Pujols leading the Majors in home runs, his total is 33% higher than the next closest players, San Diego’s Adrian Gonzalez and Mark Reynolds of Arizona. Pujols has been on base four or more times in a game an amazing 96 times in his career. He has already picked up 32 intentional walks this season.
Old hat stuff.
The rarest play of them all, the triple, is what intrigued me. It was Albert’s first three-bagger in almost two years.
Over his 8-1/2 year MLB career, it was just Pujols’ 14th three-base hit, a play that usually depends more on speed than on baserunning aggressiveness. Pujols has plenty of the latter, but much less of the former.
Looking at his triples output by season, one can see the dropoff.
Pujols’ triples by season
| 2001 | 4 |
| 2002 | 2 |
| 2003 | 1 |
| 2004 | 2 |
| 2005 | 2 |
| 2006 | 1 |
| 2007 | 1 |
| 2008 | 0 |
| 2009 | 1 |
| Career | 14 |
Here are the individual summaries of Pujols’ triples.
| Date | Opp | Pitcher | Score | Inn | RoB | Out | RBI | |
| 4/26/2001 | MON | Tony Armas | down | 2-3 | b 5 | — | 2 | 0 |
| 6/20/2001 | CHC | Julian Tavarez | down | 1-3 | b 6 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 8/3/2001-2 | FLA | Jesus Sanchez | down | 1-4 | b 6 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 10/3/2001 | @MIL | Jamey Wright | tied | 0-0 | t 1 | -2- | 2 | 1 |
| 7/30/2002 | @FLA | Vic Darensbourg | ahead | 3-0 | t 8 | — | 1 | 0 |
| 8/2/2002 | @ATL | Kerry Ligtenberg | down | 2-10 | t 7 | 1-3 | 1 | 2 |
| 8/15/2003 | @PHI | Terry Adams | down | 4-7 | t 7 | — | 1 | 0 |
| 8/29/2004 | @PIT | Oliver Perez | tied | 0-0 | t 3 | 1– | 1 | 1 |
| 9/2/2004 | SDP | Blaine Neal | ahead | 5-2 | b 7 | — | 2 | 0 |
| 7/28/2005 | @SDP | Clay Hensley | ahead | 7-3 | t 6 | 1– | 0 | 1 |
| 8/31/2005 | @FLA | Jason Vargas | ahead | 3-0 | t 5 | 1– | 0 | 1 |
| 7/9/2006 | @HOU | Chad Qualls | tied | 5-5 | t10 | — | 1 | 0 |
| 9/8/2007 | @ARI | Micah Owings | down | 0-3 | t 3 | 1-3 | 2 | 2 |
Having the triple and home run in the same game is even rarer. Despite slamming 351 career home runs, Pujols has put the two together in a single contest only twice. Oddly, they occurred over a four-game span in 2004 and the triples were his only two that year.
Pujols triple and home run in same game
| Date | Tm | Opp | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | IBB | SO | |||
| 9/2/2004 | STL | SDP | W | 7 | - | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 8/29/2004 | STL | @PIT | W | 4 | - | 0 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Finally, here are the Cardinals’ single-season leaders in triples this decade.
| Rank | Player | 3B | Year | Age |
| 1 | Fernando Vina | 8 | 2001 | 32 |
| 2 | David Eckstein | 7 | 2005 | 30 |
| 3 | Fernando Vina | 6 | 2000 | 31 |
| T4 | Skip Schumaker | 5 | 2008 | 28 |
| T4 | Aaron Miles | 5 | 2006 | 29 |
| T4 | Juan Encarnacion | 5 | 2006 | 30 |
| T4 | Bo Hart | 5 | 2003 | 26 |
| T4 | Fernando Vina | 5 | 2002 | 33 |
| T4 | J.D. Drew | 5 | 2001 | 25 |
| T10 | Joe Thurston | 4 | 2009 | 29 |
| T10 | Adam Kennedy | 4 | 2008 | 32 |
| T10 | Scott Spiezio | 4 | 2006 | 33 |
| T10 | Scott Rolen | 4 | 2004 | 29 |
| T10 | Fernando Vina | 4 | 2003 | 34 |
| T10 | Scott Rolen | 4 | 2002 | 27 |
| T10 | Kerry Robinson | 4 | 2002 | 28 |
| T10 | Placido Polanco | 4 | 2001 | 25 |
| T10 | Albert Pujols | 4 | 2001 | 21 |
As always, there would be no data if Tom Orf hadn’t served it up.
It’s not just the foot speed that limits his triples. He simply hits the ball so hard that is seems to get back to the outfielder faster than most players.
I remember being at a game in San Francisco a few years ago when they displayed all his stats on the big screen scoreboard. My Giants fan buddy told me he had picked out a flaw in Pujols’ game: his lac of triples. I told him what I just wrote, he hits the ball too hard.
Sure enough, later in that game he hit a ball over Bonds’ head in left that caromed back to Bonds so quickly that Pujols would’ve been out by 40 feet if he had tried to stretch it to a double, let alone a triple.
Fair point, Diz. Another related factor is that because of his power, outfields will play him deep, making it more difficult to hit one over the outfielders’ heads – unless it is a home run.
Just yesterday, I was asked on a radio interview if there is anything that Albert cannot do. I said “pitch” instead of “not hit triples”…
When I was a kid, I saw a Giants/Cards game. It was disheartening to watch Mays catch everything that went anywhere near CF. Willie made basket catches look effortless, so one felt in the presence of a master, a player at another level.
As a hitter, Pujols seems like this. His skill is at a higher plane. I suspect his output has been suppressed the past couple of years because of elbow pain. This year he must be feeling better, his supreme ability more unleashed.