Pujols BM487323

The Oakland Athletics hosted the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in a game between division rivals on May 8, 2017. Going into this game, the two teams were battling for second place in the division. The Angles held a 2-0 lead going into the top of the third inning. This ball saw action from three batters. First, it was brought into play for the third strike of Kole Calhoun’s at-bat, the 210th career strikeout for pitcher Kendall Graveman. This baseball stayed in the game and was pitched three times to Albert Pujols. The first two pitches were a called strike, and a swing and a miss. The third pitch started as a 94.8 MPH fastball and ended up leaving Prince Albert’s bat at 103.36 MPH, landing 323 feet away in center field, the 1639th single, and 2857th hit of Pujols’ career. Both Graveman and this ball remained in the game when Luis Valbuena took a turn at the plate. The first pitch was a called strike, an 86.5 MPH changeup, and the second and final pitch of this baseball’s career was a fastball in the dirt. Balbuena eventually hit a fly out to left field, followed by a Danny Espinosa strikeout to end the inning with no permanent damage being done on the scoreboard. The angles would not score again. The A’s, on the other hand, would get a home run from Jed Lowrie in the fourth inning to pull within one. A homer off the bat of Trevor Plouffe tied the game, 2-2, in the fifth inning, and Jed Lowrie hit his second home run of the game, a walk-off shot in the bottom of the eleventh inning to give Oakland the win. At the end of the game, Los Angeles held a slight lead in the standings with a record of 16-18, however the trail the first place Astros by 6 games.