Cardinals: Predicting when Albert Pujols will hit his 700th home run

Once a milestone thought to be out of reach, Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals still has time to reach 700 career home runs. 

Heading into Tuesday’s home game against the Milwaukee Brewers, Albert Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals have 21 regular-season games remaining. The Cardinals will enter that matchup with an eight-game lead over the Brewers in the National League Central.

Pujols currently has 697 career home runs in his 22-year MLB career, putting him fourth all-time behind Babe Ruth (714), Hank Aaron (755), and Barry Bonds (762).

Predicting when could Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals will hit his 700th career home run

In 37 games since the All-Star Game, Pujols has bashed 12 home runs. Those 12 long balls have come in 114 plate appearances, meaning the 42-year-old future Hall of Famer is hitting a home run every 9.5 plate appearances since the Midsummer Classic. During those 114 plate appearances, Pujols has not only been a home run machine, but an overall offensive weapon for St. Louis as well, slashing .340/.395/.748.

So if Pujols were to stay on that same home run pace he has been putting up since mid-July, that would mean that he would need 38 more plate appearances to set the record. If Pujols were to get four plate appearances per game, he would need 9.5 games in order to put number 700 in the record books.

Looking at the St. Louis schedule and fast forwarding nine games, that perhaps-historic game for Pujols and his 700th home run would take place on September 21 in San Diego against the Padres. The Cardinals also play the next game at Petco Park before heading to Los Angeles for what could be a pivotal three-game series against the Dodgers. Last season, Pujols played in 85 games for the Dodgers, hitting 12 home runs, including eight at Chavez Ravine.

The next home game for the Cardinals comes on September 30, the beginning of a three-game set against the Pittsburgh Pirates, the final regular-season home games at Busch Stadium.

Of course, Pujols may not play in every game or get four at-bats in the coming days. He also may not keep up his current pace of home runs per at-bat. With all of that in mind, we predict that Pujols will hit the 700th home run on the road against the Dodgers on Saturday, September 24.