Starting With a Cycle
Posted by Raphy on May 23, 2010
Recently, an inquiry to baseball-reference.com piqued my interest. A reader wanted to know if a team has ever started a game with a natural cycle, (a single, double,triple and home run in order) by the first 4 batters. This question intrigued me and with the help of the PI event finder I was able to find only one occurrence since 1952.(I used the PI event finder to search for home runs by the #4 hitter with 0 outs and a runner on 3rd in the first inning and manually went through the results. If a team started with a single/double/triple and the #3 hitter scored before the HR by the #4 hitter, I missed it.)
On August 16th 1978, the Twins were facing Royals pitcher Doug Bird and did just that. Here is the play by play for that inning.
| Inn | Score | Out | RoB | Pit(cnt) | R/O | @Bat | Batter | Pitcher | wWPA | wWE | Play Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bottom of the 1st, Twins Batting, Tied 0-0, Royals' Doug Bird facing 1-2-3 | |||||||||||
| b1 | 0-0 | 0 | --- | MIN | H. Powell | D. Bird | 4% | 58% | Single to CF | ||
| b1 | 0-0 | 0 | 1-- | R | MIN | R. Smalley | D. Bird | 12% | 70% | Double to LF; Powell Scores | |
| b1 | 1-0 | 0 | -2- | R | MIN | R. Carew | D. Bird | 10% | 81% | Triple; Smalley Scores | |
| b1 | 2-0 | 0 | --3 | RR | MIN | G. Adams | D. Bird | 7% | 87% | Home Run; Carew Scores | |
| b1 | 4-0 | 0 | --- | O | MIN | M. Cubbage | D. Bird | -1% | 86% | Strikeout | |
| b1 | 4-0 | 1 | --- | O | MIN | B. Wynegar | D. Bird | -1% | 86% | Strikeout | |
| b1 | 4-0 | 2 | --- | MIN | R. Chiles | D. Bird | 0% | 86% | Single to CF | ||
| b1 | 4-0 | 2 | 1-- | O | MIN | W. Norwood | D. Bird | -1% | 85% | Groundout: 2B unassisted/Forceout at 2B | |
| 4 runs, 5 hits, 0 errors, 1 LOB. Royals 0, Twins 4. | |||||||||||
A search for the reverse turned up no results. (Again my sort does have potential holes. I sorted through the results for doubles by the #3 hitter with 0 outs and a runner on 3rd in the first inning. Any basepath advances between the triple and double would have caused this search to miss those games.) Only 2 games in my search started with a homerun/triple/double.
May 25, 1955 - St. Louis Cardinals
| Inn | Score | Out | RoB | Pit(cnt) | R/O | @Bat | Batter | Pitcher | wWPA | wWE | Play Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bottom of the 1st, Cubs Batting, Tied 0-0, Cardinals' Brooks Lawrence facing 1-2-3 | |||||||||||
| b1 | 0-0 | 0 | --- | R | CHC | E. Miksis | B. Lawrence | 10% | 65% | Home Run | |
| b1 | 1-0 | 0 | --- | CHC | G. Baker | B. Lawrence | 8% | 73% | Triple | ||
| b1 | 1-0 | 0 | --3 | R | CHC | B. Speake | B. Lawrence | 5% | 78% | Double; Baker Scores | |
| b1 | 2-0 | 0 | -2- | CHC | R. Jackson | B. Lawrence | 2% | 80% | Walk | ||
| Bobby Tiefenauer replaces Brooks Lawrence pitching and batting 9th | |||||||||||
| b1 | 2-0 | 0 | 12- | O | CHC | T. Tappe | B. Tiefenauer | -4% | 76% | Flyball: Unknown | |
| b1 | 2-0 | 1 | 12- | CHC | E. Banks | B. Tiefenauer | 4% | 80% | Walk; Speake to 3B; Jackson to 2B | ||
| b1 | 2-0 | 1 | 123 | O | CHC | D. Fondy | B. Tiefenauer | -7% | 73% | Baserunner Out Advancing; Speake out at Hm/Unknown | |
| b1 | 2-0 | 2 | 12- | O | CHC | D. Fondy | B. Tiefenauer | -3% | 70% | Flyball: Unknown | |
| 2 runs, 3 hits, 0 errors, 2 LOB. Cardinals 0, Cubs 2. | |||||||||||
August 17,1977- New York Yankees
| Inn | Score | Out | RoB | Pit(cnt) | R/O | @Bat | Batter | Pitcher | wWPA | wWE | Play Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top of the 1st, Yankees Batting, Tied 0-0, Tigers' Fernando Arroyo facing 1-2-3 | |||||||||||
| t1 | 0-0 | 0 | --- | R | NYY | M. Rivers | F. Arroyo | 9% | 59% | Home Run | |
| t1 | 1-0 | 0 | --- | NYY | R. White | F. Arroyo | 8% | 67% | Triple to LF | ||
| t1 | 1-0 | 0 | --3 | R | NYY | T. Munson | F. Arroyo | 5% | 73% | Double to RF; White Scores | |
| t1 | 2-0 | 0 | -2- | O | NYY | R. Jackson | F. Arroyo | -3% | 70% | Strikeout | |
| t1 | 2-0 | 1 | -2- | R | NYY | C. Chambliss | F. Arroyo | 9% | 79% | Triple to RF; Munson Scores | |
| John Hiller replaces Fernando Arroyo pitching | |||||||||||
| t1 | 3-0 | 1 | --3 | O | NYY | G. Nettles | J. Hiller | -4% | 75% | Groundout: P-1B | |
| t1 | 3-0 | 2 | --3 | NYY | C. May | J. Hiller | 1% | 76% | Walk | ||
| t1 | 3-0 | 2 | 1-3 | R | NYY | W. Randolph | J. Hiller | 6% | 82% | Single to CF; Chambliss Scores; May to 2B | |
| t1 | 4-0 | 2 | 12- | O | NYY | B. Dent | J. Hiller | -2% | 80% | Popfly: SS | |
| 4 runs, 5 hits, 0 errors, 2 LOB. Yankees 4, Tigers 0. | |||||||||||
May 23rd, 2010 at 9:44 am
Interesting find. Of note, the Yankees near reverse cycle was the day after Elvis Presley passed away.
May 23rd, 2010 at 3:04 pm
How about this one?
The MLB debut of Ervin Santana; May 17, 2005
It wasn't in sequential order, but his faced for BFP were
Sizemore Triple
Crisp Double
Hafner Single
Broussard HR
May 23rd, 2010 at 6:47 pm
Yeah, they just showed Santana's on MLB Network. Bizarre that this topic would come up today. (Except I thought they said it was the 5th anniversary of Santana...I guess plus one week.)
May 23rd, 2010 at 7:10 pm
Twins had a nice rally going in that 1978 game, until Adams killed it with that home run.
May 23rd, 2010 at 10:26 pm
Raphy,
I confirmed both your results (forward cycle and reverse cycle) using the event database; there are none that sneaked through the PI. This was remarkably easy to narrow down. I wouldn't have guessed that from 1952-2009 there have been only 144 games in which either team's third batter hit a no-out triple in the first inning.
May 23rd, 2010 at 10:29 pm
Although, strictly speaking, it now occurs to me any of the batters who didn't hit a homer (especially the single) COULD have been retired.