The outfielder put his name in the record books with the eighth cycle in Reds history.
JJ Bleday knew exactly what was at stake when he stepped into the batter’s box in the sixth inning Saturday night.
He also knew there was a chance he could make history.
The Cincinnati Reds outfielder had already doubled, tripled and singled against the Diamondbacks, leaving a home run as the only thing standing between him and the eighth cycle in franchise history. For Bleday, though, the moment didn't seem to become real until after the ball left the yard.
“I mean, I was trying,” Bleday said postgame, via Reds Daily. “I would say I'd be lying if I said I wasn't.”
That honesty is probably the best way to describe what made the night so unusual.
Bleday admitted he spent parts of the game thinking about what might happen, even visualizing how he would celebrate if the opportunity actually came. Then, when Arizona's Zack Littell threw the first pitch of the sixth, Bleday went after it.
He hit a 90.2 mph four-seam fastball 370 feet to right field.
The ball barely gave him time to wonder whether it would stay in the park.
“I'm just like, please, please, God, please go, because I top-spun it,” Bleday said, via MLB.com's Patrick Brown.
It went.
The home run completed a 4-for-6 night with three RBIs and two runs scored, while also giving Bleday a new career high with 21 home runs. More importantly, it gave him a moment he already knows will stay with him long after Saturday's 11-5 Reds victory over Arizona.
“When I'm, you know, 50, 60 years old, I mean, this day will forever mean great in my memory,” Bleday said. “On a baseball field in the big leagues.”
That perspective carries a little more weight considering where Bleday had been coming into the game. He had just two RBIs during August and had not recorded a multi-hit game since Aug. 17. Saturday was his first four-hit game of the season.
Instead of trying to explain a sudden turnaround, Bleday kept coming back to the same idea.
Compete.
“Things haven't been going that well for me as of late, so it's just trying to persevere, show up and compete,” Bleday said via Brown.
That mentality also fit the way Cincinnati played all night. Terry Francona watched the Reds build an early lead while Arizona repeatedly threatened to make things interesting, yet the manager said his lineup never stopped producing.
“We stayed consistent one through nine, and it was a good night,” Francona said postgame, via Cboxmedia. “Elly had a bunch of hits, and it was a special day for Bleday.”
Elly De La Cruz nearly created another piece of history himself, finishing a triple shy of the cycle while going 4-for-6. Had both players completed the feat, it would have been the first time since 1900 that two players from either team hit for the cycle in the same game.
De La Cruz still had plenty of appreciation for what his teammate accomplished.
“It's always cool seeing somebody hit for the cycle,” De La Cruz said, according to Brown. “That was really, really cool.”
For Bleday, there was one final reminder that the night had actually happened. He managed to get the home run ball back from the fan who caught it, trading a bat, the game’s scorecard and a few photos for the souvenir.
The rest of the night, he said, still felt like something he was trying to process.
“It was just really cool,” Bleday said. “It was an out-of-body experience.”
