San Diego Padres second baseman Jake Cronenworth became the second player in Major League Baseball to hit for the cycle this season as part of a drubbing against the Washington Nationals. (The Padres and Nationals combined for the highest scoring game of the season, having plated 27 combined runs through six innings, and winding up with 32 runs scored.)
Cronenworth completed the feat in the sixth inning, when he reached on an infield single. He'd previously homered in the fifth inning, tripled in the third, and doubled in the second.
Coincidentally, Cronenworth's infield single was hit to Nationals shortstop Trea Turner, the other player to hit for the cycle this season. Turner did the deed in late June against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Cronenworth entered the night hitting .276/.350/.459 (127 OPS+) with 12 home runs and four stolen bases (on five attempts). He recently made his first appearance in an All-Star Game. The Padres originally acquired Cronenworth as part of a five-player trade with the Rays that also included Tommy Pham, Hunter Renfroe, Xavier Edwards, and Esteban Quiroz.
Cronenworth's cycle is the first for the Padres since Wil Myers did it in April 2017 against the Colorado Rockies. (Those Rockies then gave up a cycle to Turner roughly two weeks later.) Matt Kemp, in 2015, contributed the only other cycle in franchise history.
Myers, by the way, delivered San Diego's 13th grand slam since the start of the 2020 season. That's the most among MLB teams over that timespan, according to ESPN Stats and Info, with the Atlanta Braves being the one other team with at least 10.
The Padres started the second half with a 53-40 record on the year, good for third place in the top heavy National League West. The Padres trail the San Francisco Giants by six games and the Los Angeles Dodgers by four games, but they would be the second wild card in the NL if the season were to end tomorrow. Fittingly, the Padres would then play the Dodgers in a one-game playoff.
