Albert Pujols in a 2012 game. (Photo Courtesy: Barbara Moore/Flickr)
Welcome to the 3,000 hit club Albert Pujols.
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim first baseman achieved the feat by lining a single to right field in the 5th inning off Seattle Mariners pitcher Mike Leake. He also added a two-run single in the 9th for hit No. 3,001, helping the Angels to the 5-0 win.
“It was going to happen, it was just a matter of when,” Pujols said to MLB.com. “I just thank the Lord that it happened tonight in front of my family, my friends. Now we just stay focused on the things that I want to do, which is help this ballclub to win. We don’t have to talk too much about 3,000 now.”
Pujols, 38, became the 32nd player to reach 3,000 and the second from the Dominican Republic, after Adrian Beltre. He’s also hit 620 home runs, becoming only the fourth player to collect 3,000 hits and 600 home runs, joining Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Alex Rodriguez.
The three-time MVP and two-time World Series champion started his career with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2001 and quickly became one of the most feared hitters in baseball. He hit .329 with 37 home runs and 130 RBI’s as a rookie. For a 13th round pick in 1999, it has been a career that Pujols would have never imagined would come true.
“My goal was to try to get an opportunity to become a professional athlete,” Pujols said to MLB.com. “I thank God for giving me the ability and the talent to do that. I never thought that my career would end up like this. If I would have had 1,000 pages blank and the Lord would have said just write what you think is going to happen in 38 years, I wouldn’t have even come close to the history and the things that I’ve done in this game.”
Thank you to all of my family, friends and fans for the support I’ve been given throughout my career. 3,000 hits was a special milestone for me and it is an honor to have shared it with all of you. May all glory be to God. pic.twitter.com/s08LrMNw0e
Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Clay Holmes, Aug. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Clay Holmes got a taste of the World Series experience in 2024 with the New York Yankees, but he and his team came up short of winning the whole thing.
He’s now with the Chicago Cubs, where both he and the team’s front office hope his addition to the starting rotation could mean a deep run in October.
The Cubs acquired Holmes from the New York Mets at the MLB trade deadline last month, and in his seven starts with Chicago he has a 2-3 record and a 3.46 ERA. Between the two teams, he’s 6-7 on the year — but with a 2.85 ERA and a 2.4 wins above replacement rating, which is the highest of his career.
“It’s been a very easy transition for me,” Holmes told the Chicago Sun-Times last week. “Everything’s about winning. You’re in that competitive environment, and you get to focus on and do the things that you want to do. It makes showing up to work a lot of fun every day.”
The 33-year-old made his major-league debut in 2018 with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and he spent the beginning part of his career as a reliever, including when he was traded to the Yankees in 2021. New York used him as a high-leverage reliever and closer, logging 20 saves and earning his first All-Star Game selection in 2022. He racked up 24 saves in 2023, then 30 in 2024, when he earned his second All-Star Game selection.
He then moved across town to the Mets ahead of the 2025 season and was converted to a starting pitcher. In his first year being stretched out, he logged a 12-8 record with a 3.53 ERA over a career-high 165.2 innings pitched. He has continued to flourish in his second year as a starter.
The Cubs are clinging to a 1.5-game lead in the National League wild-card race. Should they reach the postseason, they”ll have a number of options for starting pitchers, including Kevin Gausman, Matthew Boyd, Shota Imanaga and David Peterson, in addition to Holmes. That means the Cubs could employ Holmes out of the bullpen. He’s ready either way.
“When the lights get brighter and the games become more meaningful, the rest of everything else kind of drowns out. From my experience, that’s what you crave,” Holmes told reporters last week. “It’s a drug. It’s all you want is just to care about this one game in front of you, and that’s all that matters.”
His mindset has been formed by a mixture of his upbringing, his path to the major leagues and his faith in God. He’s the son of a preacher, which means — fair or not — he grew up under perceived heightened pressure and expectations to live a certain way. But that helped prepare him for the pressure of playing professional baseball.
He was drafted out of high school, so he knew it would take a while to make it to the majors. But Tommy John surgery delayed that process by another year or two, leading him to spend about seven years in the minors before getting the big-league call-up.
But that experience tested his faith and perseverance, he said.
“It’s a lot of bus rides. A lot of patience,” he said on the Sports Spectrum Podcast in 2023. “But I kind of knew what I was signing up for. I knew that being in high school I was a pretty raw talent, so there’s going to be some refining that needs to take place. It was maybe longer than I wished, but I look back on a lot of those years and I met a lot of great people.
“You go through things with some teammates that really just remind you why you play the game. … There’s a lot of moments in those seven years that I wouldn’t trade for anything.”
Plenty of players who have faced similar setbacks and delays have retired before realizing their MLB dream. The grind can become too taxing. For Holmes, it was his faith and God that helped him stay focused and grounded.
“My confidence, my identity, who I am and what I can do is not really tied into some title that’s given to me,” Holmes told MLB.com in 2024. “Obviously it’s an honor and a great thing, but knowing who I am, knowing what I’m capable of and the pitcher I can be — the person I am — those things weren’t stripped away.”
His faith grew even deeper right before he was traded to the Yankees, where he wanted to embrace being a living sacrifice for God.
“When you become that living sacrifice, there’s a freedom that comes with it that allows you to just display the talents and the uniqueness that God’s given you — and the identity you have in Him — in a way that’s much greater than you can do on your own,” he said on the Sports Spectrum Podcast.
And it was during his All-Star season of 2022 when he learned how to rest better. A passage he leaned on was Psalm 23.
“For me, it’s a mental thing of just learning how to rest in those things and trust that God’s brought you to a place and He’s going to continue to lead you,” he said. “You can find a lot of rest in that.”
Holmes will make his next start on Friday against the Cincinnati Reds, then make one more scheduled start before the end of the regular season.
Cleveland Guardians players speak at the team's Faith Day, Aug. 29, 2026. (Photo via X/@msteller123)
The Kansas City Royals took down the Guardians, 8-3, in Cleveland on Saturday in an American League Central matchup. The loss dropped the Guardians to a .500 record on the season and weakened their already tenuous grip on the third and final AL wild-card spot, which they had acquired thanks to a seven-game winning streak leading up to the series with Kansas City.
Yet despite the loss, many Guardians players considered Saturday a resounding success, all because of what happened before the first pitch was ever thrown.
In partnership with the Northeast Ohio chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Guardians Faith Day was held at Progressive Field in Cleveland for the second consecutive year on Saturday. During the hour-long event hosted by team chaplain Mike Suit, Guardians players were given the opportunity to share their testimonies of faith in Jesus and how a relationship with Him impacts their lives on and off the field. Fans enjoyed Christian fellowship and were encouraged to follow the Light of the World as well.
One of the players who spoke was All-Star rookie pitcher Parker Messick. Much of his testimony revolved around his grandfather’s incredible healing and how God was at work in his life through that time.
“I had the conversation with the Lord,” he said, “and I’m like, ‘Lord, I know You’re real. I’ve seen what You can do. I’m never doubting You again. You’ve proven Yourself to me time and time again. I know what You did on the cross, and I’ll live for You forever.’
“I’ve tried to live that out ever since that day. He’s never left my side and I’m seeing the things that He can do in my life, so I encourage all of you to do the same.”
Messick was joined on the panel by the man sometimes called upon to catch his lethal fastballs, 34-year-old catcher Austin Hedges.
The veteran told the story of how he grew up knowing about God and being part of a church community, but he realized he was relying on others’ faith rather than his own. In 2021, during his first stint with the Guardians, he challenged his Christian background and completely left the church.
One of the biggest influences during his spiritual wandering, he said, was the fellowship of his numerous Christ-following teammates on the Guardians.
“The biggest change is these men standing here with me,” Hedges said. “These guys are so inspiring to me. Only a few months ago, I said, ‘You know what? That’s it. I’m in!’ … These guys are living their lives the right way, and I want to live like that.”
Austin Hedges shared his testimony with fans Saturday during Faith day at Progressive Field saying “God’s love is so real” and thanking his teammates for inspiring him. #GuardsBallpic.twitter.com/Y22ifMLiEu
Hedges continued later: “As of May of this year, I got back. And I am so bought in. The last couple of months, everything is just crystal clear to me. Everything makes so much sense. God’s love is so real, and I’m so excited for the rest of this journey — my life — growing with Jesus.”
“It’s very humbling,” he told reporter Natalie Turk after the game. “It’s been very cool to see how God has grown this group of guys we have in the clubhouse, how the numbers have grown and how each guy in that group has grown individually as well. That’s been a very, very cool thing.”
“You grow in your faith and you learn that, hey, there are some things you gotta give to Him that are gonna be heavier, and things that are out of your control, that you need to be able to just give off and release,” he said.
Joey Cantillo spoke to fans pregame about his faith saying “some things you have to give to Him because they’re heavier & out of our control” #GuardsBallpic.twitter.com/geEqPfUpHn
On the diamond, the Guardians (now 69-68) are set to begin a three-game home series Tuesday night against the Toronto Blue Jays (68-70). Cleveland currently holds a half-game lead over the Orioles in the AL wild-card race.
Boston Red Sox pitcher Payton Tolle tips his cap, Aug. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Payton Tolle didn’t make the opening day roster for the Boston Red Sox. But as the calendar turns toward September, you could make the argument that the Sox are in playoff contention thanks in large part to their rookie left-hander.
Despite debuting and appearing in seven games for Boston last season, Tolle started 2026 in Triple-A. But he was recalled in late April shortly after ace Garrett Crochet got hurt. And as other starters have battled consistency or injury issues, Tolle kept showing up and putting together good starts.
Through 125.1 innings pitched this season, he has an 8-6 record with a 3.09 ERA, a team-leading 141 strikeouts and 11 quality starts. The Red Sox, who looked headed toward a dreadful season during the first half, notched their 27th win in 30 games on Aug. 7 on the back of a gem from Tolle: 14 strikeouts across six innings with just two hits and one run allowed.
The 24-year-old is the youngest MLB pitcher to rack up 14 strikeouts in a game since the late José Fernández in 2014, according to ESPN’s Mike Monaco. He’s the youngest Red Sox player to do it since Roger Clemens in 1986, when the seven-time Cy Young Award winner struck out 20 batters.
Furthermore, Tolle is second on his team in wins, innings pitched and quality starts, putting him in the conversation for American League Rookie of the Year. His efforts have helped the Red Sox to a 73-60 record (27-12 since the All-Star break) entering Thursday — six games back in the AL East and in possession of the second wild-card spot.
The Red Sox fired manager Alex Cora and a number of other coaches during the early-season struggles. Triple-A manager Chad Tracy was named interim manager shortly after Tolle was recalled to Boston, giving Tracy the unique perspective of seeing Tolle up close at both the minor-league and major-league levels.
“The mound presence, the intensity on the mound, the fastball — that was the early impression,” Tracy recently told Yahoo! Sports about Tolle. “And then you keep reminding yourself, even though you’re watching that in Triple-A, like, ‘Hey, this is his first full season in professional baseball.’ And there were clearly things that had to get better.”
Aside from his fastball, Tolle has also garnered a reputation as a lively — perhaps even goofy — presence in the clubhouse that has endeared him to his teammates and fans. He has an infectious love for the game of baseball and life in general, which he credits to his late mom, Jina, who died in 2024 after a long battle with colon cancer.
His joy also comes from his faith in Jesus.
“It helps bring that positive mindset into every day because I get to wake up knowing that God loved me enough to wake me up this morning,” he recently told Jesus Won Apparel. “It helps me set the tone for the day and I get to choose the right attitude. It’s just a bright spot of my day every day, and finding time to talk to God helps me whenever I come to the field and helps me be able to have easier conversation.”
Stitched on his glove at times is “Matthew 5:16,” which reads, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Tolle was baptized in January and posted about the occasion on Instagram with the caption, “Ask me about my Jesus.” He then discussed that decision while speaking at the team’s Faith and Family Night in July, when he also closed out the event by praying for everyone in attendance.
Tolle grew up around church, but it wasn’t until he got to TCU that his faith became truly personal. It’s been “a big part of my baseball career,” he told His Huddle in 2024.
“I have always tried to surround myself with people that are like-minded in my faith, and that has played a role in where I have gone as well,” he said. “Always trusting God and knowing He has a plan has put me in the best spots for me.”
If this season is any indication, Tolle looks poised to have a long and successful career in the big leagues. He hopes whatever he does throughout his career points others to Christ.
“I think I just hope my platform can give others hope,” Tolle told His Huddle. “I have been through some hard things during the past few years, and I want to show people that by trusting God, you can make it through and have a good attitude. I feel like I have a unique opportunity to show others the love of Jesus with the platform He has blessed me with.”
The Red Sox return to the field Friday with the first of a four-game road series against the New York Yankees.
THIS IS THE GET IN THE GAME PODCAST
HOSTED BY SCOTT LINEBRINK
Today on “Get in the Game,” we welcome Scott Spiezio, a former MLB player (1996-2007) with the Oakland A’s, Anaheim Angels, Seattle Mariners and St. Louis Cardinals. He is a two-time World Series champion, winning with the Angels in 2002 and Cardinals in 2006.
