April 6, 2005: Brad Wilkerson’s second career cycle is first in modern Nationals franchise history

The Montreal Expos joined the major leagues in 1969, as an expansion team in the National League. They didn’t get their first winning season until 10 years later, and their first postseason appearance came in 1981. After the strike-shortened season of 1994, the Expos struggled with poor attendance, especially after several star players were traded and the team entered a rebuilding phase. There were rumors that Major League Baseball would eliminate the club, but a partnership of the other MLB clubs purchased the team, and in 2005 the Expos were moved to Washington, DC, becoming the Washington Nationals.1

The Expos had selected left-handed-swinging Brad Wilkerson, a three-time All-American at the University of Florida, with the 33rd overall pick of the first round of the June 1998 amateur draft.2 He advanced through the minors, making his major-league debut on July 12, 2001. In his second full big-league season, Wilkerson hit for the cycle on June 24, 2003, against the Pittsburgh Pirates, at Montreal’s Stade Olympique. It was the 17th natural cycle – a single, double, triple, and home run, in that order – in major-league history,3 and he became the fifth Expos player to hit for the cycle.4

Two seasons later, Wilkerson accomplished the rare feat once again, this time with a 4-for-4 performance (plus a walk), scoring a run and driving in two, as the Nationals defeated the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-3, in the second game of the 2005 season.

The Nationals began 2005 on a nine-game road trip, starting with a three-game series at Philadelphia’s two-season-old Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies prevailed on Opening Day, 8-4, in front of more than 44,000 fans. In the first-ever plate appearance in Nationals history, Wilkerson led off the game by stroking a single to right. He went 1-for-5 with three strikeouts. Washington took a 1-0 lead in the second inning, but Philadelphia responded with seven unanswered runs.

After an offday, the season’s second game was watched by just 23,435 spectators, Citizens Bank Park’s smallest crowd to date.5 The daytime high temperature was 76 degrees, and it had dropped only a few degrees by the game’s first pitch at 7:06 P.M.6 Right-hander Brett Myers got the start for Philadelphia. The Phillies’ 1999 first-round draft choice was 11-11 in 2004, with a 5.52 ERA. Opposing Myers was Washington’s Zach Day, who was 5-10 with a 3.93 ERA in 2004. Both pitchers were in their fourth big-league season.

Wilkerson led off the game by working a full-count walk. Two pitches later, Phillies catcher Mike Lieberthal threw him out trying to steal second base, and two groundouts ended the inning. Washington’s José Guillén and Vinny Castilla each singled in the second, but Myers escaped without allowing a run. Meanwhile, Day had retired the first six Phillies batters.

In the top of the third, with two outs, Wilkerson sent Myers’ 2-and-1 offering well past the wall in deep right field, giving the Nationals the game’s first run.7 Cristián Guzmán followed with a single but was stranded.

Each team had a baserunner (via a double) in the fourth. In the top of the fifth, Wilkerson lined a single to right with two outs, but Guzmán’s grounder forced him out at second to end the inning. Day retired the Phillies in order in the home half. He had allowed just three baserunners to this point.

Myers ran into trouble in the sixth inning. With one out, Guillén grounded a ball into short left field. Third baseman David Bell tried to make a play, but his error allowed Guillén to take second. Nick Johnson lined a double to left, plating Guillén with an unearned run. The Nationals led, 2-0.

Philadelphia responded in the bottom of the inning. Thirty-seven-year-old Kenny Lofton, acquired in an offseason trade with the New York Yankees, singled with one out, took second on Bobby Abreu’s groundout, and scored on Jim Thome’s single to right. Pat Burrell then blasted a two-run homer to deep left, and the Phillies had taken the lead.

At this point Day had thrown 85 pitches, and Washington manager Frank Robinson called in Antonio Osuna from the bullpen. The Nationals, Osuna’s fifth big-league franchise, had signed him as a free agent before the season. He had pitched on Opening Day, allowing a hit and giving up two walks in one inning of work.8 Osuna threw just two pitches in this game, setting down Bell on a comebacker to the mound.

Myers retired the first two batters in the seventh, but manager Charlie Manuel called for left-hander Rhéal Cormier to face Wilkerson. Wilkerson drove a pitch deep to center and raced around the bases for a triple. The tying run was 90 feet away, but Cormier retired Guzmán on an infield popout, preserving Philadelphia’s 3-2 lead.

Philly’s bullpen blew the win in the eighth inning, yielding four runs. Journeyman Tim Worrell – intended as a bridge to Hall of Fame-bound closer Billy Wagner – faced five batters to start the inning, and four of them crossed the plate. José Vidro led off with a single. Then Guillén, who had joined the Nationals in a November 2004 trade with the Anaheim Angels, homered, giving Washington the lead.

One out later, Castilla and Terrmel Sledge each singled. That was the end of Worrell’s mound duties. The Philadelphia Inquirer reminded its readers that Worrell “had an 8.00 earned-run average with four home runs in nine innings in spring training.”9 Fans booed the reliever as he walked off the field, but that soon ended, as Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Jeremiah Trotter was shown on the scoreboard’s “Phanavision” screen, turning the boos into roars.

Unfortunately, as the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, “fans quickly returned to the reality on the field.”10 Aaron Fultz had entered in relief of Worrell, making his Phillies debut.11 Brian Schneider singled to right; Abreu misplayed the ball, allowing Castilla to score, and putting Sledge in scoring position.

Fultz struck out Wil Cordero, but then Wilkerson lined a ball to deep center that bounced over the low wall. His ground-rule double capped the scoring, driving in Sledge and completing Wilkerson’s second career cycle. The Nats now led, 6-3.

After the game, Wilkerson said, “I was kind of hoping it wouldn’t bounce over the fence because we’d have scored two instead of one [run]. But I ended up with a double and the cycle.”12

Washington added a final run in the ninth. Terry Adams took over as the Phillies’ fifth pitcher of the game. Vidro doubled, and after Johnson was intentionally walked with one out, Castilla hit the Nationals’ second book-rule double of the game, bring Vidro home and advancing Johnson to third base. Adams then intentionally walked Sledge to load the bases. Schneider grounded to first baseman Thome, who fired home in time to get Johnson. Another groundout by J.J. Davis ended the late threat, but Philadelphia went quietly in the bottom of the ninth, securing the Washington victory.

This was the Nationals’ first win after relocating to DC. Washington had not celebrated a victory by a major-league team since the 1971 season. Robinson praised Wilkerson and told reporters, “When you hit for the cycle, it’s always very impressive. But it wasn’t just hitting for the cycle. [Wilkerson] kept the pressure on the Phillies. People say you’re wasting him by hitting him at the top of the lineup, but he can do some good things for you up there.”13

Wilkerson acknowledged his accomplishment, but he was more concerned in getting the victory, saying, “Right now, I’m glad that everybody did a great job tonight and we got our first win. I’ll look back on it and it’s extra special for all the things, the first win for the organization and to hit for the cycle.”14

The Washington Post reported that Wilkerson and Guillén “destroyed the notion, for an evening, that Washington has no pop or circumstance in its bats.”15 In the first two games of the season, Washington had 29 hits and three homers. Eight of the 16 hits in this game went for extra bases, with Wilkerson accounting for three of them.

The Nationals won five of their first nine road games in 2005. Wilkerson hit safely in eight contests, batting .368 with an OPS of 1.020. After a hot April, he cooled off, finishing the season with a .248 batting average and a .756 OPS. In 19 games against the Phillies, Wilkerson collected 27 hits in 75 at-bats (.360, with a 1.022 OPS), including two homers, a triple, and nine doubles.16

In this second game of the season, Wilkerson had accomplished hitting for the cycle for the second time in his career. In becoming the 26th batter to complete two career cycles, he also made history by being the first player for the relocated Nationals to accomplish the cycle.17

Acknowledgments

The author thanks SABR member Steve Weiner for assistance with Washington sources. This article was fact-checked by Laura Peebles and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Brad Wilkerson, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources mentioned in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, MLB.com, Retrosheet.org, and SABR.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI200504060.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2005/B04060PHI2005.htm

Notes

1 “Montréal Expos,” Baseball-Reference Bullpen, https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Montréal_Expos. Accessed August 2025.

2 Wilkerson had been drafted out of high school (in the 13th round) by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1995, but he did not sign, choosing instead to attend the University of Florida and play for the Gators.

3 A natural cycle occurs when a batter gets his four different hits in the order of total bases: first the single, then a double, then the triple, and finally the home run. Before Wilkerson, the major leaguers to hit for a natural cycle were Lon Knight Philadelphia (AA), on July 30, 1883; Pete Browning, Louisville (AA), on August 8, 1886; Fred Carroll, Pittsburgh (NL), on May 2, 1887; Oyster Burns, Brooklyn (NL) on August 1, 1890; Bill Collins, Boston (NL), on October 6, 1910; Bob Fothergill, Detroit (AL), on September 26, 1926; Tony Lazzeri, New York (AL), on June 3, 1932; Charlie Gehringer, Detroit (AL), on May 27, 1939; Leon Culberson, Boston (AL), on July 3, 1943; Jim Hickman, New York (NL), on August 7, 1963; Ken Boyer, St. Louis (NL), on June 16, 1964; Billy Williams, Chicago (NL), on July 17, 1966; Tim Foli, Montreal (NL), on April 21, 1976; Bob Watson, Boston (AL), on September 15, 1979; John Mabry, St. Louis (NL), on May 18, 1996; and Jose Valentin, Chicago (AL), on April 27, 2000. Since Wilkerson’s natural-cycle feat, only one other player has hit for a natural cycle: Gary Matthews Jr., Texas (AL), on September 13, 2006 (as of the end of the 2025 season).

4 In the 36-season history of the Montreal Expos, six players hit for the cycle. They were Tim Foli (April 21-22, 1976), Chris Speier (July 20, 1978), Tim Raines (August 16, 1987), Rondell White (June 11, 1995), Wilkerson (June 24, 2003), and Vladimir Guerrero (September 14, 2003).

5 Todd Zolecki, “Phillies Bullpen Take Beating as Nationals Pull Out Victory,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 7, 2005: E1, E7. Citizens Bank Park opened on April 3, 2004.

6 “Philadelphia, PA Weather History,” Weather Underground, https://www.wunderground.com/history/daily/us/pa/philadelphia/KPHL/date/2005-4-6. Accessed September 2025.

7 Sledge had homered in the first game of the series, becoming the first Nationals batter to hit a round-tripper.

8 Osuna made two more appearances (in the next series with the Florida Marlins). He gave up 10 runs in one combined inning of work. His ERA ballooned to 42.43, and he never appeared in the big leagues again. The Nationals released him at the end of the 2005 season.

9 Zolecki, “Phillies bullpen Take Beating as Nationals Pull Out Victory.”

10 Zolecki.

11 Fultz had been selected off waivers by the Phillies from the Minnesota Twins in the previous October.

12 Kent Baker, “Nationals Score One for History in 7-3 Win,” Baltimore Sun, April 7, 2005: C5.

13 Baker. Frank Robinson, a Hall of Famer, hit for the cycle on May 2, 1959, while playing for the Cincinnati Reds.

14 “Wilkerson Downplays Cycle,” Washington Times, April 7, 2005, https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2005/apr/7/20050407-125219-8212r/. Accessed November 2025.

15 Mike Wise, “An Adaptable Player, Right Down to His Nickname,” Washington Post, April 7, 2005: D9.

16 The Phillies finished second in the NL East Division at 88-74. The Nationals were fifth in the NL East at 81-81.

17 Since 2005 nine more players have hit for the cycle at least twice (as of the beginning of the 2025 season). Six players have hit for the cycle three different times in their careers. This count (25 players before Wilkerson) does not include New York Giants right fielder Mike Tiernan, who hit for the cycle on August 25, 1888. Tiernan is given credit for completing the cycle a second time in his career. According to several sources, including Retrosheet, Baseball Almanac, and MLB.com, on June 28, 1890, Tiernan supposedly hit for the cycle against the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds won 12-3, but a careful inspection of the newspaper box scores shows that Tiernan was 2-for-4 in that contest with a single and home run; therefore, no cycle. Perhaps he did hit for the cycle a second time in his career. If so, it was not on June 28, 1890. “Cycles,” Retrosheet.org, https://www.retrosheet.org/cycles.htm, accessed November 2025; “Hit for the Cycle,” Baseball-Almanac.com, https://www.baseball-almanac.com/hitting/Major_League_Baseball_Players_to_hit_for_the_cycle.shtml, accessed November 2025; Ed Eagle, “Players Who Have Hit for the Cycle,” MLB.com, July 25, 2025 https://www.mlb.com/news/players-who-hit-for-the-cycle-c265552018.