St. Louis Cardinals' Albert Pujols hits a double in the sixth inning against the Chicago Cubs for his 100th RBI of the season on Thursday. (Tom Gannam/Associated Press)

Albert Pujols collected his 100th run batted in Thursday's 3-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs, becoming just the third player in major-league history to reach the milestone in each of his first eight seasons.

Pujols, 28, plated Aaron Miles with an RBI double in the sixth inning to reach the milestone.

He joins Al Simmons, who did it in his first 11 seasons, and Ted Williams, who did it in his first eight.

Pujols, who has 33 home runs, also extended his major-league mark of consecutive seasons with at least 30 home runs and 100 RBIs to start a career.

Pujols, the National League's most valuable player in 2005, has been on a tear of late, collecting nine RBIs in his last five games while batting .362.

The hot streak has lifted his overall batting average to .360, putting the native Dominican in contention for a second batting title with Atlanta Braves slugger Chipper Jones.

With files from the Associated Press