MILWAUKEE — The Miami Marlins waited three decades before having a player hit for the cycle in a game.
Now they’ve had cycles in back-to-back seasons.
Xavier Edwards became the second Marlins player ever to hit for the cycle Sunday, as the rookie went 4 for 4 and hit his first career homer in a 6-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. He also scored both of Miami’s runs.
The Marlins had their inaugural season in 1993, but they’d never had anyone hit for the cycle until Luis Arráez accomplished the feat while going 4 of 5 with two runs and a pair of RBIs in an 8-4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on April 11, 2023.
“Really cool,” Edwards said. “Luis’s the first and we were teammates for about a month-and-a-half last year. He’s a great guy, great hitter and great teammate. Really cool to kind of follow in his footsteps and get the second one. Definitely very excited and very grateful for it.”
Edwards homered off Tobias Myers on the opening pitch of the game, drew a leadoff walk from Myers in the third, doubled against Jakob Junis in the fifth and tripled off Joel Payamps in the seventh. The triple also was the first of his career.
The homer came on Edwards’ 185th career plate appearance. Myers noted after the game that he and Edwards were former teammates in the Tampa Bay Rays’ farm system.
“He’s a good hitter,” Myers said. “He’s always been that way. He’s always been able to put the ball in play and make things happen.”
By the time Edwards stepped to the plate for the final time with two outs in the ninth inning, he was well aware how close he was to a milestone. But he also had to face Devin Williams, a two-time NL reliever of the year.
“I hate to say it, but I’d been thinking about it for the last two innings or so leading up to my last at-bat,” Edwards said. “I was like, ‘All right, I think I’ve got a single left.’ For whatever reason, I was thinking in my head two-strike hit. I don’t know why. Probably not that great a thought process.”
Sure enough, Edwards hit a grounder to the left side on a 1-2 changeup, sprinted down the line and reached first just ahead of the throw from shortstop Willy Adames.
“I would have been pretty upset with myself if I didn’t hit a single,” Edwards said. “I usually spray a lot of singles, so I would have been pretty upset about not getting a single. So I’m really glad I did.”
Edwards was the eighth player ever to hit for the cycle during the same game in which he hit his first career homer, according to Elias Sports Bureau. The last person to do that was San Francisco’s Fred Lewis in 2007.
This has been an eventful year for Edwards, who missed the start of the season with a foot infection but has come on strong lately. Edwards, who turns 25 on Aug. 9, is batting .379 with a .462 on-base percentage in 25 games.
“He’s hitting the ball the other way, he’s walking, hitting it with power,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “His at-bats are super calm at the plate. There’s not much swing-and-miss. He’s never off balance. He puts it in play. You like him in leverage spots. He’s been outstanding. I’ve said it before: I knew he was going to be pretty good at the plate. I didn’t know he was going to be this good at the plate.”
Even so, Edwards seemed an unlikely candidate to hit for the cycle because he hadn’t hit a homer before Sunday. Only 10 of his 56 career hits have gone for extra bases.
He managed to leave Milwaukee with a couple of souvenir baseballs — one for his first career homer and one for completing the cycle. Edwards had a good idea where he planned to send them.
“Once we’re back home, I’ll probably give them to my mom,” Edwards said. “She’ll take good care of them and put them somewhere safe.”
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB