A Baseball ‘Machine’ Finds Happiness
The New York Times
After an unceremonious exit from the Angels, Albert Pujols got back to the postseason in a surprising role: joyful mentor.
LOS ANGELES — It was a packed house, a big moment and the baseball was rising toward the sky on a line straight toward October.
Albert Pujols watched in a uniform he never expected to wear from a place he never imagined he would be. It was teammate Corey Seager’s two-run blast that lit the roar that capped a Los Angeles evening last week. And there was Pujols, in the Dodgers dugout, leading the cheers.
Once, in the days he was known as The Machine, Pujols commanded his own stretch-run spotlight. Those big moments now mostly belong to others, while Pujols focuses on what is usually one nightly plate appearance, strategically placed, against a left-handed reliever — though with Max Muncy injured, that could change in Wednesday’s National League wild-card game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Dodger Stadium.
