Every 2022 Albert Pujols Home Run Ranked from Worst to Best
By: Louis Greubel
March 20th, 2023
This was very, very difficult.
When it was announced in March of 2022 that Albert Pujols would be returning to St. Louis after ten seasons away, Cardinals fans immediately started doing the math. “He’s got 679 home runs. All he needs is 21 more. Can he really do it? Can he really break the 700 mark?”
It seems like a silly question in retrospect, but the odds were certainly stacked against Albert. He hadn’t cleared 25 homers since 2016, and his 2021 campaign only netted him 17. Everybody knew he was getting up there in age, and his body wasn’t at all the same as it was when he burst onto the scene over 20 years earlier. The idea of Pujols reaching 700 was really just a fantasy. Most people were just happy to see him reunited with his old friends Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright.
But hindsight tells the story, and the story is that after the 2022 season, Albert Pujols ended up 4th all-time in home runs with 703, and 2nd all-time in RBIs with 2,218. On his way to those historic numbers, Albert Pujols hit 24 home runs over the course of his final season, and each of them were special in their own way.
But which one was the most special? And which one was the least special? Ranking these home runs this way is no easy task. It’s like trying to rank sunsets—they’re all amazing. At this point, all you’re trying to do is distinguish “amazing” from “extraordinary,” and “extraordinary” from “legendary.” So while it’ll be difficult, we’re going to give it a shot.
Here’s every Albert Pujols home run of 2022 ranked from worst to best.
24. #682
May 22nd
To be clear, none of these home runs are “bad;” they were all incredibly exciting moments. Each of Pujols’ at-bats in his final season were must-see TV. But one homer has to take the 24 spot, and for us, it’s his third of the season, number 682. The reason this home run ranks so low on our list is that it took place in an 18 to 4 road blowout against the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was a solo shot in the 5th inning of a game that the Cardinals ended up winning handily. This homer was the only one Pujols hit in the month of May, aside from…
23. #683
May 22nd
This home run came in the same May 22nd contest against Pittsburgh. The matchup was the first of four multi-home run games for Pujols this season, and his second homer came in the top of the 9th with the Redbirds up 15 to 0. It was a 3-run blast that put the Cardinals up a commanding 18 to 0. The Pirates would put up 4 runs in the bottom of the 9th, but unfortunately for them, they came up about 14 runs shy of sending the game into extras.
22. #684
July 10th
While we’re not ranking these home runs in the order in which they happened, numbers 24, 23, and 22 on our list just so happen to have occurred chronologically. This blast came at home in the bottom of the 6th against the Philadelphia Phillies in a game the Cardinals were losing 3 to 1. Albert’s mid-game moonshot off of Christopher Sanchez got the Cardinals back in it, and they would score again to tie the game in the 7th, and once again in the 8th to take the lead. Ryan Helsley would pop out Kyle Schwarber to seal the win in the top of the 9th.
21. #687
August 10th
The 687th home run of Albert Pujols’ career came in an August 10th away game at Coors Field that the Cardinals won 9 to 5. This solo shot resulted in an 8 to 2 Cardinals lead. Given the wide margin of victory and the fact that the Cardinals weren’t at home, this homer ranks lower on the list than the next 20. There was a pretty large Cardinals cohort in the crowd that night, though, and they made sure to give Albert a big ovation. This homer was also special in that Albert’s first Major League hit came at Coors over 20 years prior. Also, during this game, Pujols tied Ty Cobb in total games played.
20. #688
August 14th
This August 14th Pujols homer came against the division-rival Milwaukee Brewers in a home game that the Cards won 6 to 3. The Redbirds were trailing 2 to 0 when Albert placed a shot off the Big Mac Land sign in the bottom of the second. There isn’t much to say about this one; it cut the deficit in half and put the Cardinals on track for a much-needed August win. His next on our list would come in the very same game.
19. #689
August 14th
Albert really got a hold of number 689. As Dan McLaughlin pointed out in the broadcast, the outfielders never even moved after Pujols made contact with the baseball. The towering blast went 443 feet, landing about halfway up section 193 in left field. The way the ball was flying, it seemed like it would end up on Clark Avenue. This monstrous three-run shot occurred in the bottom of the 8th inning, extending a 3 to 2 Cardinal lead over the Brewers to a 6 to 3 lead. It was Albert’s 10th of his 2022 campaign, putting him into double digits on pace to 703.
18. #696
September 10th
Number 696 was a milestone home run for Pujols—not just in the 2022 season, but in his career, and in the game of baseball overall. This home run tied Alex Rodriguez for 4th all-time in Major League homers. It was a two-run shot in the 6th in Pittsburgh to tie the game. That’s the interesting thing about these home runs: they weren’t just for show or to help pad Pujols’ stats. They were important. They were clutch. They mattered; they helped put the Cardinals in a position to win games. Before the season began, some people were wondering if Albert would even be effective, let alone reach the 700 home run mark. But this blast was his 17th of the year, and it put Albert on par with one of the greatest hitters of his generation in A-Rod.
17. #698
September 16th
I tried to be as objective as I could while writing this list, but I have to admit to a bit of bias here: I was at this game, and it was one of the best Cardinal games I’ve ever been to. The Cards won 6 to 5, Arenado made a ridiculous play to save a run in the 5th, Ryan Helsley ended the game on an immaculate inning, and Albert Pujols hit the 698th home run of his career. The homer tied the game in the bottom of the 6th, and it was absolutely demolished to left field. It would put Albert just 2 home runs shy of 700—2 home runs that would wind up being hit on the same night. Speaking of which…
16. #699
September 23rd
This homer might seem to be placed relatively low on the list, but there are a few reasons for its position: it came in a blowout 11 to 0 victory, it came on the road, and it came during an Apple broadcast (without the Cardinals’ home announcers able to comment on it as it happened). Still, 699 pretty much confirmed what we already knew: Albert was going to do this. He was going to reach 700—we just couldn’t have known quite how soon he would do it, accomplishing the feat in his very next plate appearance (more on that in a while). Still, it happened at historic Dodger Stadium, which was cool, and Albert’s short stint with the Dodgers made number 699 that much more special.
15. #694
August 29th
This 2022 Pujols home run barely cleared the right field wall at Great American Ball Park. The two-run liner came in the top of the third in a game the Cardinals were already winning 6 to 0 (and would go on to win 13 to 4). Like many of Albert’s long balls this season, though, it came with a bit of history attached: he hit it off of Ross Detwiler, the 450th unique pitcher to give up an Albert Pujols home run. With that, Pujols passed Barry Bonds, who had hit home runs against 449 individual pitchers, to take the number one spot in that category. Albert would go on to hit home runs against 5 more unique pitchers in 2022 for a total of 455 throughout his career—a record that will likely stand for a long time to come.
14. #681
April 17th
This blast was only the second of Pujols’ 2022 campaign, and it was rare in that it came in a game the Cardinals would go on to lose. Albert would homer in 20 different games that season, and only 3 of those games would end up being Cardinal losses. Two of the games, though, were played after the Cardinals had already clinched the National League Central, meaning this was the only consequential game in which Pujols homered and the Cardinals lost. The absolutely mammoth blast was the 20th he ever hit in Milwaukee, and it nearly found its way into the top deck in left at American Family Field (which my Brewers-loving friends tell me will always be Miller Park to them).
13. #685
July 12th
The 685th home run of Albert Pujols’ career—only the 6th of his 24-home-run 2022 season—was a solo shot against the Dodgers in the bottom of the second at Busch Stadium. It broke the game’s scoreless tie early, and helped set the tone for a game the Cardinals would go on to win 7 to 6. An interesting fact about Albert’s 2022 home runs is that 9 out 24 of them—over a third—came in one-run games, meaning that the then-42-year-old slugger was having a clear impact on the Cardinals’ attempts to win games and make it into the postseason.
12. #686
July 27th
Pujols’ 7th home run of the 2022 season was a 3-run bomb in the top of the 5th against the Toronto Blue Jays. It would be the last time either team scored during the game (a game the Cardinals would go on to win 6 to 1), and it was the last home run Pujols would hit north of the border. Albert hit this homer pretty much to straight away center field; the ball left the bat at 108 miles per hour and flew for 439 feet before landing in the WestJet Flight Deck at the Rogers Centre.
11. #691
August 20th
Spoiler alert: this home run and the next home run on the list happened during the same game. This marked Albert’s third multi-home run game of 2022, a feat which he would accomplish once more before the year ended (but more on that in a bit). The long ball came against fellow veteran Madison Bumgarner (on his 9th pitch of the game, no less) and cut a 2 to 0 Cardinal deficit to a 2 to 1 Cardinal deficit.
This homer was special for two reasons: it saw Pujols pass Cardinal legend and first-ballot Hall-of-Famer Stan Musial in total bases. Also, the Diamondbacks’ Chase Field was the first ballpark in which Pujols ever homered—a two-run shot on April 6th, 2001. That first homer Pujols hit occurred so long ago that Chase Field was still called Bank One Ballpark, and the fellow Redbird he drove in was none other than Ray Lankford.
10. #692
August 20th
The second of Pujols August 20th, 2022 home runs—and number 692 of his career—came in the 4th inning (also against Madison Bumgarner). The Cardinals would wind up winning this game in a 16 to 7 blowout, but at the time, Pujols’ solo shot made the game 4 to 3 (with the Diamondbacks still in the lead). Dan McLaughlin’s call alone elevates this homer into the number 10 spot of our rankings. McLaughlin, amazed that Pujols hit two homers in one game for the 3rd time in his 22nd Major League season, bellowed in disbelief, “He’s amazing! Remarkable! Incredible! Is this real?!” It was real, and, if you ask us, it was the 10th-best home run Pujols hit that year.
9. #695
September 4th
With better management, Albert Pujols’ 695th home run may not have happened—or at least not in the same manner in which it did. In a scoreless tie in the bottom of the 8th against the Cubs at Busch Stadium, Cards manager Ollie Marmol made the decision to send Albert Pujols up to pinch hit with a man on second—good managing. Cubs manager David Ross decided to let rookie reliever Brandon Hughes try his luck against one of the best power hitters of all time in a critical game situation—bad managing, but great for Cardinals fans.
Albert sent an 0-1, middle-middle fastball over the Cub bullpen in left field with a towering blast to take a 2 to 0 lead. Dan McLaughlin was quick to point out David Ross’s mistake in his call of the homer, saying, “They pitch to him! And they get burned!” Those two runs would be the only runs of the game, and the homer proved to be Albert’s final career at-bat against the bitter St. Louis rival—a legendary home run that will be remembered for years to come.
8. #693
August 22nd
Just two days removed from his 691st and 692nd home runs in Arizona, number 693—like number 695—came against the Cubs; this time, though, Albert worked his magic on the road at Wrigley Field. It was a solo shot, the sole run scored in a 1 to 0 Redbird victory. It was the 30th career home run Albert hit at Wrigley Field, and starter Drew Smyly—the poor soul who had to face a determined Pujols that day—became the 449th unique pitcher Albert ever homered against, tying Barry Bonds in that category.
This home run came on a 1-2 count, and Pujols, eager not to strike out, sent the ball sailing over the left field wall for his 14th of the season. This was the first game in Albert’s last series at the Friendly Confines and, much to the delight of Cardinal fans, he left the Cubs faithful with a memory they’d probably rather forget.
7. #690
August 18th
“Pinch-hit grand slam” are some of the most exciting words in baseball, especially when they involve an aging, legendary power-hitter in his farewell season. This blast came in just the third inning of a 13 to 0 rout of the Colorado Rockies, extending a 6 to 0 Cardinal lead by an additional 4 runs. The game in which this home run took place was a weekday game that started at noon, so the usually sold-out Busch Stadium had about 10,000 empty seats that day. Still, the estimated 36,000 fans who were in attendance can say that they saw the last grand slam Albert Pujols would ever hit. The four-run shot was the sixteenth of his career, trying Dave Kingman, Hank Aaron, and Babe Ruth.
6. #697
September 11th
Pujols’ 18th home run of 2022 (and the 697th of his career) was special in that it allowed him to pass Alex Rodriguez and take sole possession of 4th all-time in MLB home runs. It was important to the outcome of the game, too; at the time of the blast, the Cardinals were losing 2 to 1 against the Pirates in Pittsburgh. The two-run homer gave the Cardinals a 3 to 2 lead in a game they would end up winning by one run.
The homer traveled 403 feet and left the bat at 105 miles per hour, but what matters more than the statistics, the figures, and even the outcome of the game was getting to see Albert embrace his longtime friend Yadier Molina after trotting around the bases and into the record books. These two men helped to define St. Louis Cardinal baseball for the better part of two decades, and watching them celebrate together was the icing on the cake. If Pujols had stopped there, his legend would already have been cemented. But thankfully for all of us, he wasn’t quite done yet.
5. #702
October 2nd
697 is a hard act to follow, but as far as we’re concerned, there are 5 more 2022 Pujols home runs that managed it. The first of our top 5 picks, home run number 702 occurred in early October back home at Busch Stadium. It was the second-to-last long ball of Albert’s storied career, and it would be the last home run he would ever hit in the city of St. Louis—in his final regular-season game at Busch, no less. The Cardinals would go on to lose the game 7 to 5, but they had already clinched the NL Central at that point in the season.
What mattered more was that in his last regular-season game at home, Albert was able to add an exclamation mark, homering one final time for the home crowd. Oh, and he also tied Babe Ruth in RBIs—no big deal. The solo home run marked Pujols’ 2,214th run batted in, the second-most of all-time. Luckily, he would add 4 more RBIs to his total before the year was up to pass the Great Bambino.
4. #680
April 12th
While the 680th home run of Albert’s career didn’t have any particular milestone attached to it, there is one special factor that boosts it all the way to the number 4 spot on our list: it was the first Cardinal home run Pujols hit since his decade-long absence from wearing the birds on the bat. It came just four games into the season and, luckily, it occurred at Busch Stadium. Shortly after the ball left the yard, Dan McLaughlin echoed Cardinal fans’ sentiments perfectly on the mic, saying, “Welcome back, Albert! It’s like you never left!”
Though some fans (including myself) took Albert’s departure from St. Louis pretty hard, this home run—this moment—removed any and all doubt that the Gateway to the West is Albert’s true home. In a post-game interview, Pujols told Jim Hayes, “This is where everything started for me, and to be able to win a championship in this uniform and hopefully win another one this year would be awesome. It feels good to be back.” The Cardinals did not win a championship that year, but most fans would probably agree that we wouldn’t trade that year’s memories for anything.
3. #701
September 30th
We’re into top 3 territory now, and we’re confident that the trio of homers we’ve chosen are in the right place on this list. Like number 680, Pujols’ 701st home run didn’t necessarily have any records or historic milestones attached to it, but it’s memorable in that it was the first homer he hit at home since breaking into the 700 club. This home run acted as a home-town curtain call for Albert after achieving the historic 700 milestone, and it was a hell of a blast. Dan McLaughlin summed it up perfectly, saying, “The final home stand of his career, and the memories just keep on comin’!”
The solo blast was hit off of former Cardinal Johan Oviedo—a moonshot that landed all the way up in Big Mac Land (and if you’ve ever had the fortune of catching a game at Busch Stadium, you realize just how far away that is from home plate). The monster home run affected the outcome of the game, too; it tied things up in the 4th in a matchup the Cardinals would win by just 1 run by a score of 2 to 1. This home run was the third-to-last Albert would ever hit, the second-to-last he would hit at home, and, if you ask us, it was the third-best of his 2022 campaign.
2. #703
October 3rd
This was it: the climactic conclusion of a historical masterpiece that Albert Pujols began putting together on April 6th, 2001. This was the culmination of an effort matched only by 3 other men in baseball history—Barry Bonds, Henry Aaron, and Babe Ruth himself. The final home run Pujols ever hit came in Pittsburgh on October 3rd, 2022. It was given up by Pirates starter Mitch Keller in the 6th inning on his 90th pitch of the game.
The long ball had a significant piece of baseball history attached to it: it gave Pujols his 2,215th and 2,216th career RBIs, passing Babe Ruth for second all-time in Major League Baseball. The only man to accumulate more runs batted in was Hank Aaron with a ridiculous 2,297. Number 703 was an all-time great moment in the game of baseball, but there’s one more 2022 Albert Pujols home run that ranks above it.
1. #700
September 23rd
The question as to whether or not Pujols would reach the 700 home run mark had been on the minds of baseball fans for years. Even just a couple of seasons into his decade-long stint with the Angels, people were already beginning to calculate the pace Albert would need to keep in order to reach the historic milestone. But on September 23rd, 2022, we didn’t have to guess anymore. 700 had arrived.
If Albert had hit this home run back at Busch Stadium, the universe might have imploded on itself. Sadly, the momentous home run came on the road, but it happened in perhaps the next-best place: at Dodgers Stadium against the team for which Albert had most recently played. He was still close with the L.A. players and fans, and the Dodgers faithful were more than happy to celebrate the moment, despite the fact that it put their team down 5 to 0.
Number 700 came during the same game as number 699 (in the very next at-bat, as a matter of fact). Albert hit the homer off of pitcher Phil Bickford in a 1-1 count in the top of the 4th. But the game, the score, the standings—none of it mattered in that moment for Cardinals fans or Dodgers fans. What mattered was that our invincible hero was rounding the bases with a smile on his face after achieving the impossible. Adrián Beltré was in attendance behind home plate that night, and before celebrating with his teammates as a newly minted member of one of baseball’s most elite clubs, Albert jogged over to Adrián to give him a double high five.
He then hugged Brendan Donovan, high fived Paul Goldschmidt and Tommy Edman, and then, in a moment Cardinals fans had been waiting for, embraced Yadier Molina in much the same way the two men embraced after so many legendary Pujols moments in 2022. The adulation continued to pour in from his fellow Cardinals, and through a hot mic, viewers could hear Albert’s teammates saying, “You’re the greatest ever, baby! You’re the greatest ever,” “You’re the best,” and even, “I love you!”
The camera then cut to Mookie Betts applauding in the outfield—a classy move from an all-time great player who’s putting together an incredible career in his own right. While players and fans alike continued to laud Albert’s accomplishment, he made sure to recognize his friends in the other dugout, pointing over to them and giving them an air-hug. The cherry on top of the surreal moment? Home run number 700 drove in the 4th and 5th RBIs of Pujols’ night—5 runs batted in for the guy who wore number 5 on his jersey.
Final Thoughts
A list like this is subjective, and so much of what’s been written here is wide open for scrutiny, debate, or rearrangement. But there are likely very few who would disagree with the opinion that the 21st home run of Albert Pujols’ 2022 season—the 700th of his career—was his magnum opus. Maybe in 50 years, people will look back at the footage of the moment and accuse it of being saccharine. Maybe in 100 years, Albert won’t even be in the top 10 all-time in home runs. Maybe in 1,000 years, people won’t even be playing baseball anymore.
None of that matters. The only thing that matters is that for those of us who lived that moment—those of us who watched that ball fly, heard that cheering, saw those smiles, and felt that emotion—for one night, we got to share in the culmination of a Cardinal story over two decades in the making, a story authored simply by a man and his baseball bat 700 times over. For one night, we got to live within a piece of blissful baseball immortality—and we wouldn’t rank it any other way.
-RJC
Louis Greubel
Louis is an avid, lifelong St. Louis sports fan. He has a bachelor’s degree in English from St. Louis University, and he’s worked as a professional writer for five years. Louis joined his brother Andy Greubel and their good friend Brendan Phillips in early 2023 to help make Red Jacket Club the premier hub for St. Louis Cardinals podcasts, videos, and blog content. In his spare time, he listens to Billy Joel, Elton John, and the Beatles, and hangs out with his fiancée—his favorite person in the world.
In lieu of connecting with Louis on social media, be sure to follow @red_jacketclub on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. He’ll see you there.
