The order was double, triple, single, home run.
The home run completed the cycle — a fly ball to right field at Chase Field. Three of the four hits went that way. The double was a sharp ground ball that first baseman Tim Tawa deflected on its way to right fielder Corbin Carroll, and Elly De La Cruz scored. The single was a grounder to Carroll that moved De La Cruz to third and Sal Stewart to second. Only the triple went the other direction — a sharp line drive to center fielder Ryan Waldschmidt, and Stewart scored.
A cycle is a single, a double, a triple, and a home run in one game. What makes it hard is not any one of those hits. It is that a hitter must produce four different results in the same game. The triple asks for a ball hit far enough to reach a gap and a runner fast enough to take three bases before the throw arrives. The home run asks for a ball hit far enough to leave the field. The single asks for a ball that finds grass without carrying past the infield. The double sits between all of them. A player who hits home runs does not always leg out triples. Bleday's triple was his second of the year. His home run was his twenty-first.
His four hits produced 10 total bases and three RBI. De La Cruz scored on the double. Stewart scored on the triple. The home run stood alone.
He came to the plate twice more. He flew out to center — to Waldschmidt, who had not caught the triple. He struck out swinging.
Cincinnati won 11–5. It was the fourth cycle of 2026.
