‘Pretty special’: Luis Arraez hits the first cycle in Miami Marlins history

Luis Arraez knew what was at stake when he stepped into the batter’s box in the eighth inning Tuesday.

The Miami Marlins’ second baseman and hitting maestro was a base hit away from franchise history.

“I first got a double, triple and then a homer,” Arraez said. “I said, ‘OK. I got this’ and then just went up to bat.”

Arraez did more than just bat.

He put himself in the Marlins’ record book.

With his eighth-inning single against the Philadelphia Phillies’ Andrew Bellatti — a ball lofted to left field on a 2-1 count — Arraez became the first player in the franchise’s history to hit for the cycle in Miami’s 8-4 win over the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.

The Marlins (5-7) were the only team in Major League Baseball to not have a player hit a cycle before Arraez accomplished the feat. Since the franchise’s first game on April 5, 1993, there had been 111 instances of a player hitting for a cycle by other teams. This included three against the Marlins.

Miami finally broke that stretch in the 12th game of its 31st season, Game No. 4,700 overall. The team had a celebratory shot in the clubhouse postgame. Arraez’s batting gloves from the game are heading to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Arraez, meanwhile, is taking the ball from his cycle-completing single, his jersey and the scorecard home.

“Pretty special,” first-year Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said.

The accomplishment came a couple days after another special moment in Arraez’s life: He found out on Sunday, his 26th birthday, that his wife is expecting their third child.

“That’s why I’m excited and happy right now,” Arraez said.

That’s the general mood for Arraez, who is always upbeat in the clubhouse and on the field.

He said that when he got to the ballpark Tuesday that it was a “special” day.

Why?

“Because we played baseball,” Arraez said. “It’s a beautiful sport for me and I think for everybody. I just come here to play baseball and then try to do my best and help the team win.”

Arraez, the reigning American League batting champion, has done just that and been the steady hitter Miami hoped he would be when they acquired him in January from the Minnesota Twins for starting pitcher Pablo Lopez and a pair of prospects.

Through 12 games, he leads MLB with 22 hits and a .537 batting average. His 1.328 on-base-plus-slugging mark ranks third in MLB and is tops among National League hitters. He has also struck out just three times in 47 plate appearances.

“What we preach is being a good hitter and not just power, slug,” Schumaker said. “He’s showing guys what using the whole field and what the preparation looks like and just being a good hitter, grinding out at-bats, never take a pitch off, just the whole mentality day-in and day-out.”

Arraez has safely reached base in each of his 11 starts, has eight multi-hit games and now two games with at least four hits.

“He makes hitting look way too easy,” Marlins infielder Jon Berti said.

That was the case yet again on Tuesday when he made Marlins history.

Arraez logged the first hit of the game with his double to right against Phillies starter Aaron Nola.

After a third-inning lineout to center, the second baseman tallied a one-out triple in the fifth inning on a broke-bat hit to right. He then scored on a Jorge Soler double to left.

In the seventh, Arraez hit his first home run of the season, sending a Connor Brogdon four-seam fastball a projected 358 feet to left field.

And in the eighth, he sent a Bellatti changeup to left for his cycle-completing single.

Now, he has his place in Marlins history because of it.

When asked who he thinks will be most proud of him, Arraez said his mom, wife and personal hitting coach, although he added “I’ve got a lot of people who help me to go hard every day.”

“I want to give this to my family,” Arraez said.