Brock Holt Hits for the Cycle

Brock Holt does it all but pitch and catch in the field. He did it all at the plate on Tuesday.

The Boston Red Sox utilityman hit for the cycle against the Atlanta Braves at Fenway Park. He doubled in the first, singled in the fifth, homered in the seventh, and then, in the bottom of the eighth, Holt hit a shot over the head of the center fielder that bounced off the deep center field wall after bouncing on the warning track. With his legs doing right by his bat, Holt made it safely sliding into third.

Holt went 4-for-5 on the day with two RBI and two runs. Impressively, he hit to all fields, with the homer launched into the monster seats and the double off the wall below, the single sent to right, and the triple cracked to center.

The batting feat helped the Red Sox defeat the Braves 9-4 and snap a seven-game losing skid. Wade Miley, who quarreled in the dugout with manager John Farrell last week, picked up his sixth win of the season. Atlanta starter Julio Teheran drops to 4-3 with the loss.

Holt enjoying a double, single, home run, and triple marks the first time an MLB player has hit for the cycle since Michael Cuddyer did it for the second time in his career last August. Tuesday night marked just the 305th cycle in MLB history, making the accomplishment only slightly less rare than the no-hitter.

The Fenway Faithful had not witnessed one of their own hit for the cycle since 1996. John Valentin, fighting for his shortstop position against rookie Nomar Garciaparra, hit for the cycle in a Red Sox uniform nineteen seasons ago. In the 19 years prior to Valentin’s 1996 plate accomplishment, Scott Cooper, Mike Greenwell, Rich Gedman, Dwight Evans, Fred Lynn, and Bob Watson all hit for the cycle for Boston.