Red Sox honor Albert Pujols with all-time classy gesture at Fenway

Just days after Manny Machado of the Padres suggested teams weren’t doing right by Cardinals legend Albert Pujols on his farewell tour, the Red Sox took things up a notch.

David Ortiz made a surprise appearance. Rafael Devers, Xander Bogaerts and Michael Wacha all gave Pujols a hug. And the Red Sox provided him with the No. 5 from the Green Monster itself.

It was just about the best gesture the Sox could’ve put together for ‘The Machine’, and it was all done in a matter of minutes.

Boston honoring Pujols — one of the greatest players in the history of baseball — was long overdue. Not for the Sox themselves, but for the majority of MLB outside of St. Louis, which has largely left Pujols’ final season as an unannounced circumstance, rather than something which should be honored.

Red Sox do right by Cardinals, Albert Pujols

“I’ll tell you what,” Machado said, h/t Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “It’s kind of (bulls–t) that teams are not giving him a farewell tour. I’ll tell you that right now. Why? Albert has been the best player in our generation to ever play this game, and to see him doing the things he’s doing — I mean, it’s just unbelievable. It’s freaking special that St. Louis gave him the opportunity to come back here and finish off his career as a Cardinal.”

Machado’s commentary may have been the wake-up call baseball needed. Pujols is a hero to Latin baseball players everywhere, including MLB. A farewell tour is warranted in this case.

Pujols is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and Boston treated him like one.