BENGIE MOLINA'S CYCLE: UNLIKELIEST FEAT EVER?
There is no rarer hit in baseball than a triple. Rarer still is a triple by a catcher. And a cycle by a catcher? Before tonight, that hadn't been done since Chad Moeller, who hit for the cycle for the Brewers against the Reds on April 27, 2004 in Milwaukee. And if there's an unlikelir name in baseball to be associated with a triple or a cycle than Molina, it belongs to a pitcher. But Bengie Molina indeed hit for the cycle in the Rangers' 8-4 win over the Red Sox. Molina did leave the game with a sore leg after his triple capped the cycle, but that's probably better than the kind of pain that you'd think might be necessary for a Molina triple, namely the ball hitting an outfielder in the head and knocking him unconscious.
Fenway Park might seem like a friendly place for cycles with all the triples hit there, but Molina's cycle was the first there since John Valentin in 1996 against the White Sox, and the first by a visiting player since Andre Thornton of the Indians in 1978.
There has been one cycle at Fenway by a catcher since 1920, according to the Baseball Reference Play Index -- Rich Gedman did it against the Blue Jays on September 18, 1985. Gedman drove in seven runs in that game, but his homer was a solo shot. He hit a bases-loaded triple, a two-run double and an RBI single.
Gedman had 12 triples in 3,159 career at-bats -- a rate of one per 263.3. He homered once every 35.9 at-bats in his career.
There have been eleven other cycles by catchers in the live-ball era, according to the BRPI. And here are those catchers, sorted by their career at-bat-per-triple rates (years and teams at the time of the cycles are in parentheses)...
Mickey Cochrane (1932 and 1933 Tigers): 80.8
Charlie Moore (1980 Brewers): 93.8
Ray Schalk (1922 White Sox): 108.3
Harry Danning (1940 Giants): 114.3
Carlton Fisk (1984 White Sox): 186.3
Chad Moeller (2004 Brewers): 198.4
Buddy Rosar (1940 Yankees): 213.2
Jason Kendall (2000 Pirates): 214.3
Rich Gedman (1985 Red Sox): 263.3
Randy Hundley (1966 Cubs): 264.8
Bill Salkeld (1945 Pirates): 425.0
Bengie Molina (2010 Rangers): 778.0
Molina has six triples in 4,668 at-bats (including four in the last five years!), but his brother Yadier, who also homered in the Cardinals' 8-4 win over the Dodgers, has a two triples in 2,488 career at-bats. They've both got some catching up to do to brother Jose's rate of 767 (two triples in 1534 at-bats). Jose did not play in the Blue Jays' 4-2 win in Baltimore.
One other thing -- Molina's homer was a grand slam. No catcher in the live-ball era has ever had a cycle that included a grand slam. Until now.
