Carlos Gomez delivered on his son's birthday with second career cycle
Texas Rangers center fielder has a flair for the dramatic. That was evident again on Saturday night as he completed his second career cycle with a two-run home run late in the Rangers 6-3 win against the Angels at Globe Life Park.
It turns out he had some motivation too. Saturday was his son’s birthday, and as he told MLB Network Radio after the game he promised his son he’d do something good.
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A cycle is definitely good. Very good, in fact.
Gomez started his big night with a two-out double in the first inning. The hit wasn’t the highlight though as Gomez literally ran out of his shoe coming around first base. In the third, he added an infield single. In the fifth, he tripled home Nomar Mazara in the middle of a four-run rally. That left the home run, which Gomez delivered against reliever Jose Valdez in the seventh inning.
In doing so, Gomez became the 31st player in MLB history to record at least two cycles. His first came all the way back on May 7, 2008, as a member of the Minnesota Twins. On that night, Gomez actually completed the cycle in reverse order. He led off the game for Minnesota with a home run. He then tripled and doubled in the same inning, which certainly made things a lot easier. Then he singled to complete it.
Gomez’s cycle is the third in MLB this season, and the first to not occur at Coors Field. Wil Myers of the San Diego Padres and Trea Turner of the Washington Nationals recorded the first two. Turner’s happened on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, he came just a triple shy from doing it in back-to-back games.
This was the tenth cycle in Rangers franchise history. Amazingly, seven of those have come since Gomez’s last in 2008. Adrian Beltre completed the most recent on Aug. 3, 2015, and is one of only three players to record three cycles. Given his talent and playing style, it would not be surprise to see Gomez join that group before his carer is over.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
