Luis Arraez
MLBBy Arthur Weinstein on

It didn’t take long for Luis Arraez to hit his way into the Miami Marlins record book.

The second baseman hit an eighth-inning single off Philadelphia Phillies reliever Andrew Bellatti Tuesday night to complete the cycle. He’s the first player in the Marlins 30-year history to hit for the cycle.

The feat comes just two days after his 26th birthday.

Arraez, acquired in the offseason via a trade with the Minnesota Twins, brought a reputation as one of baseball’s best hitters (he won the AL batting crown last year with a .316 average). He’s taken his game to another level entirely this season. After going 4-for-5 against the Phillies, he’s now hitting .537 in a not-so-small sample size (22 hits in 41 at-bats).

Arraez doubled in the first, tripled in the sixth, and hit his first homer as a Marlin in the seventh.

With all the heavy lifting done, the easy single an inning later finished out the cycle.

The Marlins will have Arraez under contract through 2025.

Before Twins fans get too sad about losing Arraex, in a strange twist of fate, one of the players Minnesota acquired in the trade, Pablo López, pitched a gem Tuesday. He struck out 10 and gave up three hits and two earned runs in 7 2/3 innings against the Chicago White Sox, retiring 23 straight batters at one point.

The baseball world marveled at the fact that Arraez did something in less than two weeks that had never before been done in Marlins history.

 

[MLB]

About Arthur Weinstein

Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.

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