The Angels lost this afternoon by a final tally of 6-2 due to a shaky bullpen in the later innings. While this is all true, a positive can still be gleaned from this one. Slugger Albert Pujols notched the 1,832nd RBI of his career in the third inning of today’s contest. As a result, he jolted past two-time World Series champ Manny Ramirez.
The RBI gave Albert sole possession of 18th place on MLB’s all-time list. What’s more is that the Angels’ star is now number one all-time among Dominican-born players. Today Pujols surpassed Ramirez in that regard as well.
Pujols brought across the Halos’ first run of the afternoon against Marcus Stroman, giving his team the early advantage. It was the Machine’s 15th RBI so far this season. He is currently ranked first on the ball club in that specific department. According to Chad Thornburg of MLB.com, it was Albert’s 503rd RBI here in the American League. The future Hall of Famer collected well over 1,300 during his brilliant run in the National League.
During this very season, the Halos’ cleanup man has a golden opportunity to pass up a lot of baseball’s greatest players in the RBI realm. His next target is Dave Winfield, whose career total is 1,833. Accordingly, Pujols only needs one more to match Winfield’s mark. The record holder RBI wise is Henry “Hank” Aaron, who amassed an incredible 2,297 during his Hall of Fame career. Pujols certainly has a lot of work to do to catch up to Hank, no doubt. But many more records are forthcoming no matter what. That is not in question.