ST. LOUIS — In what he has said will be his final season in the Major Leagues, Cardinals designated hitter Albert Pujols is chasing history.
Coming into the year, Pujols needed 21 home runs to become just the fourth member of the illustrious 700 home run club.
Only Barry Bonds (762), Henry Aaron (755) and Babe Ruth (714) have more home runs than Pujols.
We're tracking his progress throughout the 2022 Cardinals season, as Pujols makes his bid at reaching the 700 home run milestone.
No. 703 - Oct. 3, Pittsburgh Pirates
After a Sunday of celebrations at Busch Stadium, Albert Pujols continued his historic season in the final road trip of 2022.
In the sixth inning of the team's game against the Pirates, Pujols hit a pitch from Mitch Keller over the wall in the left-field corner for his 703rd home run.
With the home run, Pujols also tallied his 2,216th career RBI, breaking a tie with Babe Ruth to move into second place on the all-time RBI list.
He now has 24 home runs on the season, the most he's had since he hit 31 in 2016.
It was his seventh home run against the Pirates this season.
No. 702 - Oct. 2, Pittsburgh Pirates
After a pre-game ceremony for Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols honoring their legacy and Hall of Fame careers, Pujols hits No. 702.
He hit No. 702 to tie the game against the Pittsburgh Pirates Sunday afternoon during the last regular season home game at Busch Stadium.
Busch Stadium and fans went crazy, cheering on Pujols as he jogged around the bases and as he gave the fans a curtain call.
No. 701 - Sept. 30, Pittsburgh Pirates
During the last regular season homestand at Busch Stadium, Albert Pujols continues to make history.
Pujols hit No. 701 against the Pittsburgh Pirates Friday night during the fourth inning against former teammate Johan Oviedo to tie the game.
With only five games remaining in the regular season, Pujols will finish the historic season on a high note.
No. 700 - Sept. 23, Los Angeles Dodgers
Albert Pujols has done it.
Pujols has officially hit No. 700 against the Los Angeles Dodgers Friday night, one inning after hitting No. 699.
He becomes the fourth player in Major League Baseball history to hit 700 home runs in their career.
No. 699 - Sept. 23, Los Angeles Dodgers
Albert Pujols is officially one homer away from joining the 700 club.
In the third inning, Pujols launched a two-run homer to left center field off Dodgers starting pitcher Andrew Heaney.
No. 698 - Sept. 12, Cincinnati Reds
Pujols put himself just two homers away from joining the 700 club on Friday night against the Reds.
Pujols launched a two-run, game-tying homer off Raynel Espinal in the sixth inning.
No. 697 - Sept. 11, Pittsburgh Pirates
One night after tying Alex Rodriguez for fourth place on the all-time home run list, Albert Pujols moved into sole possession of that spot.
After getting shut out through eight innings, the Cardinals started the ninth with back-to-back doubles off of right-handed relief pitcher Chase De Jong to set up Albert Pujols with a chance to take the lead. Albert did not disappoint.
The last milestone home run milestone on the horizon for Pujols' final season is now the 700 mark.
No. 696 - Sept. 10, Pittsburgh Pirates
Starting at first base in the second game against the Pittsburgh Pirates this weekend, Albert Pujols has hit his 696th homerun.
Down 3-1 in the top of the 6th, Pujols came up to bat with one on. He hit his homer to the leftfield stands at PNC Park.
Albert Pujols is now officially tied for fourth all-time with New York Yankees legend, Alex Rodriguez.
No. 695 - Sept. 4, Chicago Cubs
In his final career at-bat against the Chicago Cubs, Albert Pujols did what he has so often against the rival.
In the eighth inning of a scoreless game, Pujols stepped to the plate with a runner on second and one out.
After a meeting on the mound between Cubs lefty Brandon Hughes and manager David Ross, the Cubs decided to pitch to Pujols.
After fouling off the first pitch, Pujols launched a homer over the visiting bullpen.
Ryan Helsley finished off the 2-0 win and the Cardinals finished off a weekend sweep.
No. 694 - Aug. 29, Cincinnati Reds
After a week of no homers, Pujols blasted off again in Cincinnati in Game 1 of the team's series against the Reds.
Pujols deposited a third-inning pitch from St. Louis area native Ross Detwiler to the opposite field for a two-run shot and career homer No. 694.
Detwiler is the 450th pitcher Pujols has homered off of in his career, passing Barry Bonds for the most pitchers homered off of all time.
No. 693 - Aug. 22, Chicago Cubs
Pujols continued his insane hot streak in Chicago, with his 693rd career home run in the team's series-opening win at Wrigley Field.
Pujols took Cubs starter Drew Smyly deep to left field in the sixth inning on a pitch high and out of the zone.
Smyly had the dubious honor of being the 449th pitcher Pujols has homered off of in his career. That ties Barry Bonds for the most pitchers homered off of in baseball history.
The Cardinals won the game 1-0, thanks to Pujols' blast and a complete game shutout from Jordan Montgomery.
Before the game, Pujols was named the NL co-Player of the Week for the previous week alongside teammate Paul Goldschmidt. Pujols hit .615 with a three home runs and seven RBIs for the Cardinals in the previous week.
Nos. 691 and 692 - Aug. 20, Arizona Diamondbacks
In his final trip back to Arizona, Pujols got the best of an old foe twice en route to a record-setting night.
In the ballpark where he hit the first home run of his career, Albert launched a fist pitch fastball from Madison Bumgardner over the left-centerfield fence to get the Cardinals on the board in the second inning on Saturday.
With the home run, he passed Stan Musial for second place on the all-time total bases list in MLB. Total bases is a stat that counts all the total bases earned on hits in a player's career. Only Hank Aaron has more than Pujols.
Two innings later, he came to the plate and hit another rocket to almost the same spot.
The home runs traveled a combined 866 feet.
His hardest hit ball of the night was a single that hit off the left-field wall, just a few feet from another home run. He added a groundball base hit and finished the night 4-for-4 with two home runs.
Pujols is the oldest player with a two-homer, four-hit game in MLB history.
Since the all-star break, Pujols has seven home runs and the highest slugging percentage of any player with more than 4 at-bats.
No. 690 - Aug. 18, Colorado Rockies
Pujols hit a pinch-hit grand slam in the bottom of the third inning against the Rockies, to put the game out of reach and put him just 10 home runs away from 700.
It was Pujols' 16th career grand slam.
Nos. 688 and 689 - Aug. 14, Milwaukee Brewers
As he's done time after time in his hall of fame career, Pujols stepped up in a big series late in the season to help his team to victory.
Pujols had a huge day against the Brewers, collecting two home runs to pull him within 11 of 700 for his career.
Pujols blasted his first home run of the day in the second inning off Milwaukee starter Aaron Ashby. The solo blast hit the fries in the Big Mac Land sign in left field.
The second homer of the day from No. 5 was an even bigger blast. Pujols launched a 443-foot, 3-run shot off Brewers reliever Taylor Rogers, which ended up being the winning runs in the team's 6-3 win in a key division match up.
Pujols leaned into the celebration on his second homer as well, gesturing towards the Cardinals dugout as he headed down the first base line.
No. 687 - Aug. 10, Colorado Rockies
Back at the site of his MLB debut in 2001, Pujols made the most of his final trip to Colorado.
Pujols notched a single and a ground-rule double earlier in the second game of the series against the Rockies, and then teed off for a 412-foot solo shot in the sixth inning off of former Cardinals pitcher Austin Gomber.
Pujols also tied Ty Cobb for fifth-place all-time in MLB games played with his start against the Rockies.
No. 686 - July 27, Toronto Blue Jays
Pujols looked like he brought some of his Home Run Derby power with him to Toronto following the 2022 All-Star break.
For career home run No. 686, Pujols launched a 439-foot shot in the fifth inning of the Cardinals' series finale against the Blue Jays in Toronto.
Pujols hit his 686th homer off of Aviston, Illinois native and Mater Dei High School graduate Trevor Richards.
According to the Cardinals' broadcast, Pujols' mammoth shot was the eighth-furthest homer of his career during the Statcast era (since 2015)
No. 685 - July 12, Los Angeles Dodgers
After ending a month-long drought, Pujols homered for the second time in three days Tuesday.
In his first at-bat of the game, Albert smacked a 0-1 pitch from Mitch White over the left-field wall for his sixth home run of the season. After circling the bases, he high-fived another St. Louis legend who was sitting in the front row: Nelly.
It's been another banner week for Albert, who passed Stan Musial on the all-time extra-base hits list and committed to competing in the Home Run Derby.
No. 684 - July 10, Philadelphia Phillies
After going homerless in the month of June, Albert Pujols added another home run to his resume and tied another Cardinals legend in a different category.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Pujols hit a 2-1 pitch from Cristopher Sánchez over the wall in left-center field.
In addition to moving closer to Alex Rodriguez on the all-time home run list, he tied Stan Musial for third in career extra-base hits with 1,377.
It marked the end of a 49-day home run drought for Pujols was the first home run by a Cardinal since July 4.
Nos. 682 and 683 - May 22, Pittsburgh Pirates
It was nearly a month between home runs for Pujols, but he broke out in a big way in Pittsburgh, and didn't even start the game.
Pujols entered the Cardinals' series finale in Pittsburgh on May 22 in the fifth inning as a pinch-hitter with the Cardinals already leading 11-0.
He blasted a 1-0 pitch from Pirates reliever Chase De Jong way out to left field for career homer No. 682.
The fifth-inning home run was Pujols' 31st career homer at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. The only ballparks he's hit more home runs in are Busch Stadium III, Busch Stadium II, Angel Stadium in Anaheim and Minute Maid Park in Houston.
But he wasn't done. Pujols came up again in the ninth inning with two runners on against position player Josh VanMeter and deposited another ball into the left field seats for his 683rd career home run.
The Cardinals won the game 18-4, as Yadier Molina came into pitch the ninth inning.
No. 681 - April 17, Milwaukee Brewers
Pujols' second home run of the season looked like vintage Albert. With two runners on base and two outs, Pujols launched a pitch from lefthanded starter Aaron Ashby into the left-field bleachers.
The 426-foot blast was his 20th career home run at American Family Field, which was previously known as Miller Park.
The three RBIs put Pujols at 2,154 for his career. Pujols has the third-most RBIs in baseball history and is 60 behind Babe Ruth.
No. 680 - April 12, Kansas City Royals
Pujols hit his first home run back with the Cardinals on the first pitch he saw from Royals starter Daniel Lynch.
A solo shot in the first inning of his second start of the season, Pujols sent Lynch's pitch sailing into the left field stands as Busch Stadium erupted. It had been 3,855 days since Pujols had last homered at Busch Stadium as a Cardinal.
He thanked the crowd with a customary curtain call, and then went on to collect two more hits on the day.
Pujols returned to the Cardinals on a 1-year deal worth $2.5 million for 2022. Pujols had played his previous 10 seasons on the west coast with the Los Angeles Angels and Los Angeles Dodgers.
From 2001 to 2011, Pujols had arguably the most decorated start to any career in the history of baseball.
In those 11 seasons, Pujols was the 2011 National League Rookie of the Year, a 3-time NL MVP, a 9-time All-Star, a 6-time Silver Slugger, a 2-time Gold Glover and won two World Series titles with the Cardinals.
Pujols, along with teammate Yadier Molina, have said 2022 will be their final season in the Major Leagues.
This story will be updated throughout the 2022 Cardinals season.