Not since Fred Lewis in May 2007 has a member of the San Francisco Giants hit for the cycle. Third baseman Pablo Sandoval accomplished this difficult task during the Thursday, Sept. 15 contest against the Colorado Rockies.
Only taking six innings to achieve, Sandoval homered in the first, doubled in the second, singled in the fifth, and stretched a double off the right-center field wall in the sixth for only his second triple of the season. It was the 292nd cycle hit in MLB history, but there have only been five cycles since the start of the 2010 season.
May 8, 2010: Milwaukee Brewers OF Jody Gerut
In a 17-3 shelling over the Arizona Diamondbacks, Gerut hit for the cycle in only his fifth start of the season. Gerut completed the sixth cycle in Brewers history by hitting a solo home run in the second inning, a single in the third, an RBI-triple in the fifth, and a two-run double in the ninth.
July 16, 2010: Texas Rangers C Bengie Molina
In an 8-4 victory over the Boston Red Sox, Molina, widely regarded as one of the slowest players in the league, completed his cycle in the eighth inning by hitting a Ramon Ramirez pitch into deep center field and off the glove of center fielder Eric Patterson. Molina’s cycle made him the first catcher since 1900 to hit for the cycle with a grand slam, a feat he accomplished in the top of the fifth inning.
July 23, 2010: Arizona Diamondbacks 2B Kelly Johnson
In a 7-4 loss to the Giants, Johnson, of the last-place Diamondbacks, hit a solo home run in the first, a double in the fifth, a two-run triple in the sixth, and a line-drive single in the eighth for his cycle.
July 31, 2010: Colorado Rockies OF Carlos Gonzalez
Gonzalez completed his cycle in the bottom of the ninth by hitting a walk-off homer to beat the Chicago Cubs 6-5. He became the sixth Rockies player in franchise history to hit for the cycle. Surprisingly, this third cycle of the month is not the first time this has been done, as this same achievement was attained in a five-day span in April 2009 by Orlando Hudson, Ian Kinsler and Jason Kubel.
Sept. 3, 2011: Milwaukee Brewers C George Kottaras
The only other cycle so far in 2011, backup catcher Kottaras completed his cycle in an 8-2 victory over the Houston Astros, thanks to a good bounce off of Minute Maid Park’s Tal’s Hill in center field that led to a ground-rule double. Out of the last three cycles completed by catchers, two were done by Milwaukee (Kottaras and Chad Moeller in 2004).
Sources:
Giants 3B Sandoval hits for the cycle, AP
Cycles Chronologically, Retrosheet
Gerut hits for cycle as Brewers rout D’backs 17-3, AP
Molina hits for cycle as Rangers beat Red Sox 8-4, AP
Johnson’s cycle not enough, Giants top Arizona 7-4, AP
Gonzalez completes cycle with walkoff homer, AP
Kottaras hit for cycle, Brewers beat Astros 8-2, AP
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Austin Chang is a lifelong baseball fan, San Francisco Giants supporter, and contributor for the Yahoo! Contributor Network.