I’ve been watching the video of Elly De La Cruz, doing his thing and Usain Bolt-ing it into third base, for nearly a week now. And I think I’ve finally decided what this was:
The most thrilling cycle of all time.
OK, I’ll admit I may be underestimating the magic of Mox McQuery’s cycle for the 1885 Detroit Wolverines. But how electrifying could that one have been, considering there was no such thing as ballpark electricity yet?
But of the cycles in the modern world, cycles for which we have actual data to evaluate them, I’ll say this again: Elly De La Cruz’s cycle for the Reds last Friday was the most thrilling ever.
How can I possibly make that argument? Oh, just watch me.
He hit a ball 116.6 miles per hour! In the second inning, with his team already down 5-0, the Reds’ magnetic rookie hit this bolt to right field. Better pay attention, because it streaks across your screen fast.
So he squashed that baseball at nearly 117 mph for his first hit of this cycle — and that wasn’t even the home run! Now why do I bring this up? Oh, only because in the Statcast era (2015-23), that was the hardest-hit ball launched by anyone in any cycle — all 37 of them — over the last nine seasons.
With the help of Statcast and MLB Network researcher Elijah Ackerman, I can present the leaderboard:
116.6 — Elly De La Cruz, last Friday
110.9 — Christian Yelich, Sept. 17, 2018
110.6 — Shohei Ohtani, June 13, 2019
He went from home to third in under 11 seconds! I don’t know about you, but it might take me a minute and a half to sprint from home plate to third base these days, even if I got in “I-might-hit-a-triple” shape. But it took De La Cruz only 10.83 seconds to do this.
“It’s a cyyy-clllle.” If you don’t feel some serious goosebumps watching that, and hearing Reds play-by-play announcer John Sadak’s epic call, you don’t get why people care about sports. We’ll get to the historic nature of that fourth hit, the triple, momentarily. But let’s delve into the how-fast-did-he-get-there part.
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According to Statcast, De La Cruz went from home to third in a ridiculous 10.83 seconds on that triple. That tied him for the fastest home-to-third dash on a triple by anybody in baseball this year — with himself (on June 7). But that’s not even the historic part.
I looked at every triple in the Statcast era in which a runner went from home to third base that swiftly. There were 35 of them by everyone else, believe it or not. You know what I learned:
Nobody in that period made it to third that fast on any triple in a cycle. So think about this …
Since they’ve been measuring this stuff, De La Cruz hit a ball harder and also ran to third faster than anyone had in any cycle they’ve quantified … and he did both on the same night? Repeat after me: Wow.
The Reds weren’t good at cycling! If you were going to pick any team in baseball to enter the Tour de France, you definitely wouldn’t have picked this team. For good reason.
They hadn’t hit one in 34 years — Eric Davis had the previous Reds cycle, on June 2, 1989. Which means, since then …
• All those other teams hit for 122 cycles while the Reds were hitting none.
• And the Reds allowed nine cycles in that time they were hitting zero cycles — including three of them just to Christian Yelich!
Their previous cycle was 30 years before that — by the great Frank Robinson, on May 2, 1959. How long ago was that? I did this math so you wouldn’t have to: That meant the Reds had had one of the previous 190 cycles … until Elly De La Cruz came along, and not a cyclical moment too soon.
This happened in the Reds’ 12th win in a row! The Reds were already the marquee attraction in baseball that night — before De La Cruz’s cycle even busted out. But that’ll happen when your team has rattled off its longest winning streak in 66 years.
The Reds started the evening with an 11-game winning streak. They ended it with a 12-game winning streak. And no cycle has ever erupted in the middle of something like that.
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I asked my friends at STATS Perform how many other cycles had ever broken out in a game in which a team won its 12th game in a row (or more). Maybe you can guess the answer … since it’s zero.
Longest winning streak entering a cycle: That would be 14, by the 2016 Indians, on the night Rajai Davis hit for a cycle (July 2). However … they lost that night. So they’re out.
Longest winning streak following a cycle: It turns out no team has ever extended a winning streak to 10 games or longer with the help of a cycle. Who knew! The previous record was nine, by a team you might not recall real vividly — Tip O’Neill’s 1887 St. Louis Browns. Tip went cycling on May 7 that year. The Browns’ winning streak eventually reached 15. But you’ll have a tough time convincing me that even remotely compares to the Elly De La Cruz Show.
They needed every inch of that cycle! I think we’ve framed the context of this night. The Reds were suddenly, shockingly, in first place. They’d ripped off a longer winning streak than even the Big Red Machine had ever put together.
They came roaring from five runs behind, against the seemingly unstoppable juggernaut known as the Braves. And then De La Cruz’s fourth hit — that triple — drove in their 11th run of the night … in a game in which they gave up 10.
So it wasn’t just a magical hit. It was a momentous hit. It was only the second cycle ever in an 11-10 game. (The other was by Boston’s Lou Clinton, on July 13, 1962.)
And it was just the fourth by any team in a home game in which the pitching staff gave up double-digit runs. The only previous cycle like that over the last four decades was authored by Jeff Bagwell, for the Astros on July 18, 2001, in a wild 17-11 game against the Cardinals.
And now some other cool stuff! What else made this cycle so much fun? Here’s what:
• This was just the 15th game of De La Cruz’s big-league career. Only two players since 1900 have hit for the cycle earlier in their career than that: Cliff Heathcote, for the Cardinals, in his sixth game (June 13, 1918) and Gary Ward, for the Twins, in his 14th game (June 18, 1980).
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• De La Cruz was 21 years, 163 days old when he rode that cycle. MLB.com’s legendary notes collector, Sarah Langs, reports that only four players in history have hit for a cycle at a younger age than that: Mel Ott in 1929 (20 years, 75 days), Heathcote (20, 140), Arky Vaughan in 1933 (21, 107) and César Cedeño in 1972 (21, 159).
• But De La Cruz did more than merely the single/double/triple/homer thing in this game. He also drove in four runs and stole a base. According to STATS, he’s the first player ever to do all of that during a cycle since RBIs became an official stat in 1920.
• The Reds may not go cycling much, but at least they reserve those cycles for their cycle-deprived fans in Cincinnati. As Reds stats genius Joel Luckhaupt reports, their last three cycles have come in home games. Which is cool enough … but they also came in three different home parks (De La Cruz in Great American Ball Park, Davis in Riverfront Stadium, Robinson in Crosley Field).
• And finally, now that we no longer have to be on Reds cycle watch, it’s Kansas City’s turn. The last Royals cycle was by George Brett on July 25, 1990. If you’re keeping track, that was 121 cycles ago … and counting.
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(Top photo: Dylan Buell / Getty Images)