The odds of a Major League Baseball player hitting for the cycle are pretty small. When we say small, we mean once-every-23,000-games small, according to a 2013 FanGraphs study.
Luckily, Michael Cuddyer got a little help along the way.
Cuddyer came to bat for the Colorado Rockies in the first inning of their game against the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday and laced a line drive to right field, where outfielder Jay Bruce appeared to have a beat on it. Bruce went into a half-slide, but the ball sailed past his glove without touching it, allowing Cuddyer to lumber into third base for his first triple of the season.
The rest, as they say, is history.
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Cuddyer added a home run, single and a double to hit for the second cycle of his career and become just the third player in MLB history to hit for the cycle in both the American and National Leagues. He accomplished the feat in 2009 as a member of the Minnesota Twins.
As an added bonus, the 35-year-old’s cycle-clinching double drove in two runs as part of a five-run rally in the eighth inning that sparked the Rockies to a 10-5 win over the Reds.
Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@SportsCenter
