It took 111-at-bats but Albert Pujols has finally hit his first regular season home-run as a member of the Los Angeles Angels.
The drought ended after Pujols hit a two run homer off Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Drew Hutchison in the fifth inning. The low pitch was golfed over the left-field wall, officially ending the longest stretch without a home run in his career.
After the home run fans in Anaheim gave Pujols a standing ovation, an ovation that last all the way into Kendrys Morales’ at-bat.
The home run comes after a Friday night performance in which the crowd was not-so-kind to Pujols, booing the star player after he went 0-for-4, a performance that dropped his batting average to a measly .194.
The homer came after manager Mike Scioscia gave Pujol’s Saturday night off to regroup from his at-bat struggles, providing Pujols with a “mental break” to recuperate.
A slumping slugger is never a good sign for a ball club, especially when that slugger is Albert Pujols and your club just signed him to a $240 million, 10 year deal that stole him away from the St. Louis Cardinals.
Leading into Sunday’s game only Angels’ Erick Aybar and the Chicago White Sox’s Alexei Ramirez, had a lower OPS than Pujols’ .506.
Putting his home run drought into perspective Pujols’ longest drought was in 2011 when he went 27 games and 105 at-bats without a home run. Pujols’ longest drought previous drought to start a season was in 2008 when he failed to hit a home run in his first eight games and 27-at-bats.
