Mexican Javier Assad makes his MLB debut striking out the iconic Albert Pujols

If for outfield players the dream debut is to knock Doña Blanca out of the park, for pitchers it is striking out a powerful slugger, and if possible, a figure with several records and a recognized career. And the latter was precisely what happened to Mexican Javier Assad, who made his debut as a pitcher in the best baseball in the world, Major League Baseball (MLB) last Tuesday, August 23, wearing the Chicago Cubs shirt, and making his first strikeout in the Big Top none other than the Dominican Albert Pujols, who is the sensation of the moment as he is very close to getting his 700th homer that will allow him to achieve glory by embedding his name as the fourth player in the history of the Majors Leagues in hitting such a number of homers and joining the select group of homers that is headed by the great Babe Ruth (714), and that also includes the magnificent Hank Aaron (715) and the phenomenal Barry Bonds who holds the best record with 762 homers .

“It was fantastic,” said the native of Tijuana after that surely unforgettable match in which his team beat the St. Louis Cardinals, having also been applauded by the Cubs fans. “And that Pujols was my first strikeout, I never imagined. We all know the great story of him. Hey, I was 3 years old when he debuted”, recalled the young pitcher from Baja California.

Assad, who boasts an accurate right arm, had one of the best Major League performances in Cubs history, striking out three opponents, allowing only four hits and as many walks. In fact, by not allowing any runs in his first four innings as a Major League player, the Mexican thrower joined a small list of debuting pitchers for the Cubs who achieved the same thing, since there are only four besides him, as they were Ryan O’Malley (2006), Jeff Pico (1998), Amaury Telemaco (1996), and Zip Zabel (1913).

Unforgettable, then, was that debut for Javier Assad, who will surely have to talk to his next generations about the privilege he had of pitching to Pujols and striking him out the night of his MLB presentation.

And it is that, as I already mentioned, Pujols has placed himself just seven homers away from inscribing his name in gold letters among the best sluggers in history, something that at the beginning of the season was seen as unattainable, but now looks every time more viable with each passing game and each home run he records.

It is said that when the Cardinals signed him they only entrusted him with “tormenting left-handed pitchers”, but the Dominican has gone further and is determined to become the fourth player to hit the wall at least 700 times.

He is currently just three home runs away from tying Alex Rodriguez, who left his mark at 696.

Pujols, with his 693rd homer on Monday, tied Barry Bonds’ record for most home runs against most different pitchers (449). And since he also singled, he reached 940 games with two or more hits in the major leagues, surpassing Paul Waner (939) for 10th place all-time.

The 42-year-old veteran began this year with 356 such encounters, enough to rank him in the number six seat. Monday’s was his ninth two-hit game this season, including a homer, and the 365th of his career, passing Willie Mays (362) and trailing only Babe Ruth (409), Henry Aaron (407 ), Alex Rodriguez (381) and Barry Bonds (379).

Pujols had already become the first player in major league history on Saturday to have four hits, including two home runs, in the same game. In addition, it was his sixty-fourth duel with multiple homers, breaking the tie he had with Mays to stay only on the fifth step.

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