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This Cycle Has Six Gears: Ian Kinsler Motors His Way To Fourth Cycle In Rangers History In Beating Balitmore 19-6

ARLINGTON – As baseball’s greatest feats go, hitting for the cycle is usually more about coincidence than about skill.

Get three different kinds of base hits and, yeah, it would be kind of cool to pick up the fourth and round out the set. For most of baseball, that is. For guys like Ian Kinsler, the cycle is a standard. It speaks of a complete offensive game.

Kinsler’s cycle Wednesday – the fourth in Rangers history – was part of a complete offensive game. Perhaps the most complete offensive game in Rangers history. By going 6-for-6 with five runs and four RBIs, he nearly single-handedly took Baltimore apart in a 19-6 win. Oh and did we mention, that he stole third, too?

“That is a monster game,” 3B Michael Young said. “The cycle is one thing, but he did so much more. It’s just a career game right there. Absolutely unbelievable.”

It wasn’t just the cycle. It was so much more:

• He became the fourth Rangers player to ever hit for the cycle following Oddibe McDowell, Mark Teixeira and Garry Matthews Jr.

• His six hits tied the club record for most hits in a game with predecessor Alfonsso Soriano, though Soriano’s big day came in an extra-inning affair. Kinsler is the first to have a six-hit game in nine innings. He’s also had seven consecutive hits, dating to his last at-bat Tuesday.

• He tied the club record for runs scored in a game, which had most recently been shared by OF Marlon Byrd and C Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

• He piled up 13 total bases, second in club history behind a 14-total base effort by Jose Canseco in 1994.

And when it was all over, he was doused with beer and then sent off trying to find a couple of souvenirs from the game. He rounded up a couple of baseballs, including the one used for his sixth-inning triple that completed the cycle and the one he lined for an eighth-inning baseball.

Those were for show. For Kinsler, the memory of the cycle was souvenir enough. And the knowledge that his six hits came in a winning effort.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever gone to bed and dreamed about it while I was asleep, but I’ve always thought this would be something very cool to do,” Kinsler said. “It shows versatility. To me, that’s why it’s such a big deal. It shows you can play the whole game.”

When he came up in the sixth inning, Kinsler already had the more common aspects of a cycle. He needed only the hard piece: A triple. But when he lined a ball towards the gap in right center he never hesitated to go for third base.

“I knew I had an opportunity to hit for it,” Kinsler said. “I was hoping for the ball to get over his head. And then I was hoping it would rattle around a little bit down there, and it did. So, as I got to second base, I knew I was going for it. That’s all there was to that.”

When he dove head-first into third, well ahead of the throw, Kinsler came up smiling.

It may have been a coincidence he would up with a cycle, but he was no accidental cyclist.

NIGHT SHOW

A quick look at Ian Kinsler’s cycle plus two extra hits Wedneday:

• First inning: Kinsler lines double down the left field line to start the bottom half.

• Third inning: After Elvis Andrus strikes out to lead off the inning against Mark Hendrickson, Kinsler homers on a 2-and-0 count.

• Fourth inning: Kinsler singles after Andrus begins the inning by walking. Kinsler scored on Marlon Byrd’s two-out single. Kinsler also singles in as the Rangers send 11 men to the plate in an eight-run inning.

• Sixth inning: Kinsler lines ball into the gap in right center between Adam Jones and Ryan Freel for triple and the cyle.

• Ninth inning: Kinsler follows Andrus’ single with another double to give him six hits and four RBIs. He later scores on Hank Blalock’s sacrifice fly, giving him five runs scored.