Wednesday night brought Angels slugger Albert Pujols yet another milestone. An RBI single in the fourth inning gave him his 3,167th career hit (added another hit later in the game).
That helped him pass Adrian Beltre for the most hits ever by a foreign-born player. It isn’t the only milestone he has reached this season as according to MLB.com, he became the first player to reach both 650 career homers and doubles earlier in the year.
Here is Pujols, along with the five other foreign-born players, who have reached the 3,000 hit club.
Albert Pujols (Dominican Republic) - 3,168 hits
The three-time National League MVP has seen his skills erode the past few seasons as he is now 39 years old, but very few could hit like him in his prime. He batted no lower than .312 in any of his first 10 seasons.
Adrian Beltre (Dominican Republic) - 3,166 hits
Unlike Pujols, Beltre seemed to actually become a better hitter as he got older. From 2012-17, he hit .310 compared to .276 in the 14 seasons he played prior to that. According to Bleacher Report, he passed Ichiro Suzuki for the previous record on June 13, 2018.