Four hits, four boxes ticked
Twenty-four hours earlier, the Reds had scraped together four singles and lost 9-0. That was the 13th time this season Cincinnati failed to score at all.
Then Phoenix happened. Sixteen hits, an 11-5 win over the Diamondbacks, and JJ Bleday putting together the kind of night that ends up in a franchise record book: single, double, triple and home run, all in the same game.
He got the double in the first, an RBI knock. The triple came in the third, another run in. An RBI single followed during a three-run fourth. That left the home run, and he took care of it in the sixth with a 370-foot shot over the right-field wall. Number 21 on the year, a career high, and the Reds were up 8-2.
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Eight cycles since 1881
Cincinnati has been playing under that name for close to a century and a half. Eight cycles. That is the entire list. The most recent belonged to Elly De La Cruz in June 2023, in only his 15th big league game.
De La Cruz nearly joined the club a second time on the same night. Four hits: his 21st homer, two singles, a double. He needed a triple and never got the chance, striking out in the eighth. No team in the history of the sport has had two cycles in one game.
The top three in the order did most of the damage. De La Cruz, Sal Stewart and Bleday combined for 11 hits, five RBIs and eight runs. Stewart now sits on 97 RBIs, still the most in the majors. Rookie Hector Rodriguez hit his first career homer. Matt McLain added another. Cincinnati went deep in four consecutive innings.
Soroka lasted three and a third
Michael Soroka never found anything. The Arizona starter allowed six runs on six hits and was pulled with one out in the fourth. Rhett Lowder went six for Cincinnati, four runs, three earned, and picked up his second win since April 20.
Tim Tawa hit his eighth of the season, a career best, to cut it to 8-4 in the sixth. Nolan Arenado also went yard. Gabriel Moreno doubled in the ninth to push his hitting streak to 15 games, another career high. None of it mattered by then.
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