Eddie Rosario of the Braves needed a double to complete a cycle when he came to bat in the ninth inning of Wednesday night's Game 4 of the National League Championship Series at Los Angeles.
Instead, he hit a second home run.
There has been only 1 cycle in a post-season game, by Brock Holt of the Red Sox, against the Yankees in 2018.
There have been 334 in the regular season, including 4 in 2021. Rosario was the most recent to perform the feat, on Sept. 13, against the Giants.
The Cubs have not had one since May 9, 1993, when Mark Grace homered with 2 out and 2 in the bottom of the ninth to finish off a cycle. The Cubs still lost to the Padres, 4-3.
Rosario's cycle last month was the 106th, nearly one third of the total number, since Grace's.
...
2 HOMERS IN POST-SEASON GAME
Wednesday was the 152nd time that a player has hit at least 2 homer in a post-season game.
Five of those times were by Cubs:
1. Gary Matthews, in a 13-0 romp over the Padres in Game 1 of the 1984 NLCS.
2. Eric Karros, in a 6-4 loss to the Braves in Game 4 of the 2003 Division Series.
3. Alex Gonzalez, in a 12-3 rout of the Marlins in Game 2 of the 2003 NLCS.
4. Aramis Ramirez, in an 8-3 win over the Marlins in Game 4 of the 2003 NLCS.
Javier Baez, in a 3-2 win over the Dodgers in the 2017 NLCS.
Rosario became the eighth Braves with multiple homers. The Yankees have done it 23 times; the Red Sox, 14; the Dodgers, 11; and the Athletics, 10.
..........
3 EXTRA-BASE HITS
Rosario became the 76th player with 3 extra-base hits in a post-season game.
Five more had 4 extra-base hits:
1. Frank Isbell of the White Sox, against the Cubs, in Game 4 of the 1906 World Series (4 doubles)
2. Bob Robertson of the Pirates, against the Giants, in Game 2 of the 1971 NLCS (double, 3 homers)
3. Hideki Matsui of the Yankees, against the Red Sox, in Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS (2 doubles, 2 homers)
4. Albert Pujols of the Cardinals, against the Brewers, in Game 2 of the 2011 NLCS (3 double, homer)
5. Enrique Hernandez of the Red Sox, against the Rays, in Game 2 of this year's ALDS (3 doubles, homer)
Matsui and Hernandez each also had a single.
..........
MULTIPLE XBH BY CUBS
No Cub has had more than 2 extra-bases hit in a post-season game.
There have been 29 games in which a Cub had 2. Besides the 5 times a player hit a pair of homers, there have been 10 in which a Cub homered and doubled, 2 in which he tripled and doubled, and 12 in which he doubled twice.
The 2 who tripled and doubled were Billy Herman, in Game 5 of the 1935 World Series against the Tigers, and Stan Hack, in Game 6, the next day.
..........
2 HOMERS AND TRIPLE
Only 10 players have had a triple among 3 or more extra-base hits in an post-season game.
Just 1 player before Rosario had multiple homers AND a triple: Steve Garvey of the Dodgers, in a 9-5 win over the Phillies in Game 1 of the 1978 NLCS.
..........
2 HOMERS AND TRIPLE BY CUBS
In the regular season, a Cub had hit 2 homers and a triple 13 times.
The most recent of those was on July 27, 2017, when Kyle Schwarber did it in a 6-3 win over the White Sox.
Less than 3 weeks earlier, on July 7, Kris Bryant turned the trick and added a single in a 6-1 win over the Pirates.
Those were the first such performances by a Cub since June 14, 2004. Todd Walker, like Bryant, also had a single that day, as the Cubs beat the Astros, 7-2.
Walker was the first to do it in just over 15 years, since Shawon Dunston, in an 11-3 triumph over the Cardinals on June 4, 1989.
...
Here, in chronological order, are the 9 previous Cubs who hit 2 homers and a triple:
1. Heinie Zimmerman, on Oct. 3, 1910, in a 5-3 loss to the Reds
2. Bill Nicholson, on June 18, 1944, in a 13-inning, 6-6 tie against the Reds. All 3 of his hits came before extra innings. His second homer tied the game in the bottom of the ninth.
3. Hank Sauer, on July 20, 1949, in a 4-3 win over the Phillies
4. Walt Moryn, on Sept. 3, 1956, in an 8-0 win over the Cardinals
5. Lou Brock, on July 28, 1963, in a 16-11 win over the Cardinals
6. Billy Williams, on June 17, 1964, in a 9-5 win over the Phillies
7. Billy Williams, on May 19, 1971, in a 9-5 win over the Giants
8. Leon Durham, on June 28, 1982, in a 6-4 win over the Pirates
9. Andre Dawson, on June 2, 1987, in a 13-2 win over the
Astros.
Dawson also had a single.
Oddly, in none of the 13 games in which a Cub homered twice and tripled once did the player hit a double.
..........
2 HOMERS AND DOUBLE BY CUBS
There have been exactly 99 game since 1901 in which a Cub hit multiple homers and at least 1 double, from Bob O'Farrell in 1923 to Joc Pederson on May 25, 2021. Both had 2 homers and 1 double.
Six of the 99 had 2 homers and 2 doubles: Hack Wilson (1927), Hank Sauer (1950), Billy Williams (1969), Aramis Ramirez (2007), Alfonso Soriano (2012) and Willson Contreras (2018).
In 2016, Kris Bryant became the first player in history with 3 homers and 2 doubles.
Two more have done so since then: Matt Carpenter of the Cardinals, against the Cubs, in 2018, and Alex Dickerson of the Giants, against the Rockies, in 2020.