On August 14, 2015, Matt Kemp became the first San Diego Padres player to hit for the cycle, knocking one rare feat off of the team’s bucket list.
Kemp notched his cycle in the Padres’ 7,444th game, a 9-5 win at Coors Field against the Colorado Rockies during.
He began by blasting a first-inning homer over the center field fence, then followed with a a third-inning single up the middle and a seventh-inning RBI double over the head of Rockeis center fielder Charlie Blackmon.
The Padres had been in that position before. The team had said it had been one hit shy of the cycle 361 times, and on those occasions, 258 of them fell a triple short. But Kemp completed the cycle by driving Justin Miller’s 1-0 slider deep to center. It took an odd bounce off the top of the wall, and Kemp hustled into third with a stand-up triple.
It was the 309th cycle in major league history but the first in Padres history (Wil Myers added a second in 2017 and Jake Cronenworth followed in 2021). Kemp’s feat left the Miami Marlins as the only team void of a cycle.
Time to add JAKE!
Done!
Enjoyed the read! I remember being stunned when Matt Kemp got his triple in the 9th at Coors Field. Congrats to Jake I loved the swinging bunt single..,clean base hit!
Kemp was stunned, too, when the third-base coach gave him the news that it was the Padres’ first!