The Rockies beat the Giants again on Sunday, but this one had a little more flair than, say, Saturday's 5-1 win. The Rockies held a 3-2 lead going into the ninth inning, but reliever Jake McGee -- closer Greg Holland was unavailable -- was touched up for three runs in the top of the ninth. So the Rockies headed to the bottom half facing a 5-3 deficit.
No matter.
With one out, Raimel Tapia, Charlie Blackmon and DJ LeMahieu singled, the latter scoring one run to make it 5-4. Up came superstar Nolan Arenado, who had already singled, doubled and tripled.
Sure enough, Arenado crushed a walk-off homer, meaning he also hit for the cycle.
The fourth cycle of the season belongs to Nolan Arenado.#Walkoff! https://t.co/YlBeOKOs9Npic.twitter.com/2lDTjQtPam
— MLB (@MLB) June 18, 2017
Arenado is hitting .295/.348/.566 with 25 doubles, three triples, 15 homers and 55 RBI this season, filling the stat sheet as always.
Hitting a walk-off homer in a game where the player hit for the cycle is, unsurprisingly, pretty rare. Thanks to Baseball-Reference's play index, I found five other times in history it happened:
- Ken Boyer, Sept. 14, 1961
- Cesar Tovar, Sept. 19, 1972
- George Brett, May 28, 1979
- Dwight Evans, June 28, 1984
- Carlos Gonzalez, July 31, 2010
So we had our sixth instance of this rarity on Sunday and two of the six came in Coors Field by current Rockies' teammates. That's pretty fun.
The Rockies have won five in a row and at 46-26, they hold the best record in the National League. If things continue on this path, Arenado could well take home NL MVP honors.
