St. Louis Cardinals: Albert Pujols most memorable pitching moments

When the St. Louis Cardinals took a 15-2 lead into the ninth inning against the San Francisco Giants on national television Sunday night, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol and future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols agreed upon a plan that took everyone by surprise and provided another memorable milestone for Pujols on his way to Cooperstown.

Here are the most memorable moments from Albert Pujols making his first-ever pitching appearance for the St. Louis Cardinals

With Marmol trying to figure out which position player would pitch the ninth to keep the St. Louis Cardinals from burning through another pitcher with a virtually insurmountable lead, Pujols reportedly spoke up and volunteered for the role.

Pujols threw 27 pitches in his one inning of work, and 16 of those went for strikes. According to Baseball Savant, his fastest pitch registered at 69.6 mph while his slowest clocked in at 46.6 mph. Ironically, his slowest pitch of the night also resulted in a groundout off the bat of LaMonte Wade Jr. and would be the final out of the game.

Of course, not everything was perfect for Pujols on the mound. He did surrender four runs on three hits, with two of those being home runs off the bats of Luis González and Joey Bart (video below).

San Francisco players seemed to realize the uniqueness of the moment, with Evan Longoria even requesting the ball to keep as a memento after getting a hit off Pujols.

With his outing on Sunday night, Pujols joined a very short list of MLB players who have hit 600 or more home runs and pitched in a game. In fact, the list is just Pujols and Babe Ruth, so that gives a feel for what kind of history was witnessed at Busch Stadium in what turned into a blowout affair.

Pujols, who also went 2-for-3 at the plate, wasn’t ready to compare himself to Ruth after the game, telling reporters, “I’m pretty sure Babe Ruth didn’t give up four runs in his first inning like I did.”

After his first appearance on the mound, Pujols has a career 36.00 ERA.

The starting pitcher for the Cardinals on Sunday, Adam Wainwright, tried to remind Pujols that home runs during first outings happen often.

That first outing for Wainwright, by the way, was on September 11, 2005, when he pitched just one inning against the New York Mets. Victor Diaz hit a three-run shot off Wainwright with two outs in the ninth inning as the Mets won 7-2.

Wainwright, however, turned out OK. Sunday’s game closed out by Pujols also gave Wainwright and catcher Yadier Molina 203 victories as a Cardinals battery, the most wins by a pitcher-catcher combo in AL/NL history.