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One RBI while hitting for the cycle

Posted by Andy on July 26, 2010

26 players have hit for the cycle since 1920 and managed only 1 RBI (coming on the home run, of course.) Click through for the list and some other cycle-related info.

Rk Player Date Tm Opp Rslt AB 1B R H 2B 3B HR RBI
1 Stephen Drew 2008-09-01 ARI STL W 8-6 5 1 3 5 2 1 1 1
2 Jose Reyes 2006-06-21 NYM CIN L 5-6 5 1 2 4 1 1 1 1
3 Randy Winn 2005-08-15 SFG CIN W 7-3 5 1 2 4 1 1 1 1
4 Luis Gonzalez 2000-07-05 ARI HOU W 12-9 6 1 4 4 1 1 1 1
5 Eric Chavez 2000-06-21 OAK BAL W 10-3 4 1 3 4 1 1 1 1
6 Todd Helton 1999-06-19 COL FLA W 10-2 4 1 2 4 1 1 1 1
7 Neifi Perez 1998-07-25 COL STL W 5-2 4 1 2 4 1 1 1 1
8 Ray Lankford 1991-09-15 STL NYM W 7-2 4 1 4 4 1 1 1 1
9 Paul Molitor 1991-05-15 MIL MIN W 4-2 5 1 2 4 1 1 1 1
10 Robby Thompson 1991-04-22 SFG SDP L 5-7 5 1 3 4 1 1 1 1
11 George Brett 1990-07-25 KCR TOR W 6-1 5 1 3 4 1 1 1 1
12 Mike Greenwell 1988-09-14 BOS BAL W 4-3 4 1 3 4 1 1 1 1
13 Albert Hall 1987-09-23 ATL HOU W 5-4 5 1 2 4 1 1 1 1
14 Tim Raines 1987-08-16 MON PIT W 10-7 5 1 4 5 2 1 1 1
15 Bobby Murcer 1972-08-29 (1) NYY TEX W 7-6 5 1 2 4 1 1 1 1
16 Elmer Valo 1950-08-02 PHA CHW W 10-3 6 1 3 4 1 1 1 1
17 Mickey Vernon 1946-05-19 (2) WSH CHW W 7-1 5 1 4 4 1 1 1 1
18 Joe Gordon 1940-09-08 NYY BOS W 9-4 4 1 3 4 1 1 1 1
19 Gee Walker 1937-04-20 DET CLE W 4-3 4 1 2 4 1 1 1 1
20 Doc Cramer 1934-06-10 PHA NYY L 3-7 5 1 2 4 1 1 1 1
21 Pepper Martin 1933-05-05 STL PHI W 5-3 5 1 4 4 1 1 1 1
22 Babe Herman 1931-07-24 BRO PIT L 7-8 5 1 3 4 1 1 1 1
23 Mel Ott 1929-05-16 (2) NYG BSN L 4-5 5 1 1 4 1 1 1 1
24 Jim Bottomley 1927-07-15 STL PHI W 9-7 5 2 3 5 1 1 1 1
25 Baby Doll Jacobson 1924-04-17 SLB CHW L 3-6 5 1 2 4 1 1 1 1
Rk Player Date Tm Opp Rslt AB 1B R H 2B 3B HR RBI
26 George Burns 1920-09-17 NYG PIT W 4-3 5 1 3 5 2 1 1 1
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 7/26/2010.

I made a post recently about Kelly Johnson hitting for the cycle but his team losing the game. My mobile editor ended up messing up the most, so here is a little of that data again:

  • Since 1920, there have been 195 cycles coming in winning efforts. Of those, 55 have come since 1993.
  • Since 1920, there have been 34 cycles coming in losing efforts. Of those, 12 have come since 1993.

So, by some simple math, that's a winning percentage of 85.2% since 1920 and 82.1% since 1993. With higher scoring since 1993, it makes sense that hitting for a cycle doesn't help win quite as much, since the offensive output from the cycle has a lesser chance of being enough to help overcome run scoring by the opposing team.

The Giants have had some bad luck with cycles recently, having 3 coming in a loss since 1985. (Click that link above to see which games...)

6 Responses to “One RBI while hitting for the cycle”

  1. MStubel Says:

    Andy, speaking of RBI, do you know if the site has a list of career leaders in RBI/Game or RBI/AB? Thank you for your help.

  2. Devin McCullen Says:

    What about the other side of it - hitting for the cycle but only scoring 1 run? And did anybody pull off both feats at the same time?

  3. Brewer 44 Says:

    Devin,

    Mel Ott: May 16, 1929 had 1 R and 1 RBI in a cycle.

  4. Bryan Mueller Says:

    I figured this has happened but I guess I really didn't think it happened this often. Thanks for the response Andy, you are the Albert Pujols of the baseball-reference blog while I am just a Greg Dobbs.

  5. Kahuna Tuna Says:

    • Since 1920, there have been 195 cycles coming in winning efforts. . . .
    • Since 1920, there have been 34 cycles coming in losing efforts.

    In the history of major-league baseball before 1920, 62 players hit for the cycle. Those players' teams won 44 of those games, lost 17, and tied one (a 19-inning 8-8 tie between the Cardinals and Phillies on June 13, 1918, in which a cycle was achieved by Cardinals outfielder Cliff Heathcote, who had debuted only the previous week). So the winning percentage before 1920 was only 72.1%.

    On June 10, 1912, the New York Giants' Chief Meyers hit for the cycle in a 10-inning, 9-8 loss to Chicago. A month and a half later, on July 25, 1912, the New York Highlanders' Bert Daniels hit for the cycle in a 10-inning, 6-4 loss to Chicago. That's a neat little bit of symmetry when you consider that players have cycled for losing teams only 51 times in 130 years.

  6. Bill Tuck Says:

    One odd thing I noticed about the planers who hit the cycle but had only one RBI is Mel Ott was the only player who scored one run. All the rest had two or more runs scored.