Have a day, Bleday! Reds outfielder hits for 4th cycle in MLB this season

PHOENIX – JJ Bleday broke out of an August slump with authority on Saturday, and he made his way into the record books in the process.

Bleday hit for the eighth cycle in team history in the Reds’ 11-5 win over the Diamondbacks, becoming the first Red to do it since Elly De La Cruz on June 23, 2023, against the Braves. The 28-year-old doubled in the first inning, tripled in the third, and singled in the fifth before completing the feat with a 370-foot blast in the sixth inning. He finished 4-for-6 with three RBIs and two runs scored.

De La Cruz finished a triple shy of his own cycle, which would have marked the first time in Major League history (since 1900) two players hit for the cycle in the same game. He finished 4-for-6 with one RBI.

Bleday recorded four hits in a game for the first time this season, and Saturday was his first multi-hit output since going 3-for-4 against the Cardinals in the second game of a doubleheader on Aug. 17. He had recorded just two RBIs in August heading into the game, but matched that total by the third inning of Saturday’s game.

• Every MLB team’s most recent cycle

The Reds scored early and often on Saturday, recording at least one run in every inning except the second and ninth. De La Cruz led off with a double three pitches into the game, and scored two batters later when Bleday doubled.

Bleday has appeared in 506 career games over five seasons with the Marlins, Athletics and Reds. He appeared in his 100th career game with Cincinnati on Aug. 20.

Starting pitcher Rhett Lowder allowed four runs, three earned, on six hits in six innings. He earned his first win since Aug. 5 against the Athletics, and has allowed four or more earned runs in a game just twice since July.

Bleday’s cycle is the fourth in the Majors this year, following Pete Crow-Armstrong (June 15), Bryce Harper (June 20) and Tristan Peters (July 11).