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 |
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...)
July 26th, 2010 at 11:03 am
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.
July 26th, 2010 at 11:06 am
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?
July 26th, 2010 at 11:31 am
Devin,
Mel Ott: May 16, 1929 had 1 R and 1 RBI in a cycle.
July 26th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
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.
July 26th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
• 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.
July 26th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
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.