Single Shy of the Cycle
Posted by Chris J. on August 8, 2007
Yesterday, Justin Upton hit a double, a triple . . . but no single. How often does a guy miss a cycle by a single? Thanks to the wonder & glory of the PI, we can find out.
Go to PI's Batting Gamelog Finder and search for 1B=0, 2B>=1, 3B>=1, and HR >= 1. Turns out that since 1957, it's happened 261 times. That's so many times I can't fit it on one save'n'share it. Here's page 1. And page 2. It's the tenth time it happened this year alone. I never would've guessed it was so common.
August 8th, 2007 at 10:27 am
I looked into this same thing a couple of weeks ago:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/sotd/archives/101
August 8th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
I'd be more interested in how many times somebody needed a single to complete the cycle, but got a double, triple, or homerun instead. I remember it happening at a game many years ago where somebody needed a single, but hit a home run. We joked that he should stop at first base.
August 8th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
I'm also interested in guys who miss the cycle by a single, but not because they recorded outs, but because they only had three PAs. I'm not paying customer for B-R so I can only see one at a time, but here's the link I made for it, hopefully it works: http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/shareit/btS2
It seems like the majority were taken out of the game before their 4th plate appearance, either because of injury or a blowout but poor Bill Freehan was on deck in the Bottom of the eighth only to watch the guy at bat to ground into an inning ending double play and wouldn't get the chance to bat again. That was the closest he got to a cycle in his career.
August 8th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Well Carl Everett had a game like that right here:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TBA/TBA200008290.shtml
He tripled, then doubled, then homered, and then homered again. His second homer game in the 7th inning with the Red Sox up 3-0, so it was a reasonably important HR.
Larry Walker did it too:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/COL/COL199605210.shtml
He did homer, double, triple, and then another homer.
Some guy named "Bad Henry" Aaron did it:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI196205030.shtml
Homer, triple, double, homer.