June 16, 2001: John Olerud becomes third Mariners player to hit for the cycle

By the time the month of May ended, the 2001 Seattle Mariners had won 40 of their 52 games and held a 14-game lead in the American League’s West Division (over the Oakland Athletics). The Mariners had won eight straight to finish the month, and the streak continued into June, eventually reaching 15. More impressively, Seattle’s 12-game homestand from May 29 to June 10 resulted in 11 wins. They left Seattle on a road trip and won two of three games against the Colorado Rockies before visiting the San Diego Padres for a three-game interleague series on June 15.

The Padres were struggling, mired in last place in the NL West. They were 10 games behind the division-leading Arizona Diamondbacks and had won just five of 21 games since May 24. The Mariners and Padres were headed in opposite directions.

Seattle won the first game of the series, 8-4, as Freddy Garcia scattered four hits and struck out six to raise his record to 7-1.1 The second game was set for an evening start before 61,065 at Qualcomm Stadium, the second-largest crowd of the season (just behind Opening Day, when 61,277 spectators turned out).2 Spectators were treated to an offensive explosion by the visitors, which included Mariners first baseman John Olerud hitting for the cycle.

Olerud was a “home-grown Washingtonian,”3 born in Seattle. He was drafted twice; the New York Mets drafted him out of Interlake High School (Bellevue, Washington) in the 27th round of the 1986 June amateur draft. He chose to attend Washington State University, and the Toronto Blue Jays then drafted him three years later in the third round.4 On September 3, 1989, Olerud made his initial major-league appearance, replacing Fred McGriff in the ninth inning at first base for the Blue Jays. The next season he placed fourth in the AL Rookie of the Year voting. In 1993 he earned his first All-Star Game nod, and he finished the season with a league-leading .363 batting average and a 1.072 OPS.

In 2001 Olerud hit a solid .337 in April and a sizzling .354 in May. He then went into a slight slump, getting just nine hits in 41 at-bats over the first 13 games in June, dropping his batting average to .323, still seventh-best in the AL.5

For the series’ second game, right-hander Carlton Loewer was making his second start for San Diego. He joined Padres in a trade with the Philadelphia Phillies after the 1999 season but had spent the 2000 season in the minors, appearing in just two games.6 According to The Californian, Loewer had battled injuries, including a broken ankle and a shoulder that required surgery.7 He started 2001 in the minors and was called up to the Padres to pitch on June 10, against the Mariners in Seattle. In 2⅓ innings, he allowed six earned runs.

Seattle’s John Halama was making his 14th start in search of his sixth win of the season. The left-hander was the winning pitcher of record in the June 10 game against Loewer and the Padres. He had won 25 games in his two previous seasons with the Mariners.

Both starters got through the first inning without allowing a run. In the top of the second, Seattle gave the crowd a show. Olerud led off by lining a double down the left-field line. Mike Cameron singled to left, putting runners at the corners. Al Martin brought both runners home with a double into the right-center gap. David Bell’s single plated Martin. Loewer then walked Tom Lampkin on four pitches, bringing Halama to the plate.8 He executed a perfect sacrifice bunt, moving both Bell and Lampkin into scoring position. After Ichiro Suzuki grounded out, Mark McLemore doubled into deep left field for two more runs. Bret Boone ended the inning by grounding out, but not until after Seattle had sent nine batters to the plate and taken a 5-0 lead.

In the top of the third, Olerud led off again and lined a pitch down the right-field line. The ball “took a funny hop,”9 ending up under the bench in the Mariners’ bullpen. Olerud legged out a triple, his first of the season. Cameron grounded a single through the left side of the infield, and Olerud scored Seattle’s sixth run of the game. That was all for Loewer. Left-hander José Núñez came on in relief, getting Martin to line into a double play and retiring Bell on a fly out.

Meanwhile, Halama had allowed a hit per inning through three frames. In the fourth, he allowed a solo home run to Phil Nevin. Seattle got two singles in the top of the fifth (by Boone and Olerud), but Núñez kept the Mariners from scoring.

Down by five runs in the bottom of the fifth, the Padres rallied. Chris Gomez and César Crespo hit back-to-back singles to center. Núñez forced Gomez at third, and then Rickey Henderson flied out to right. (Crespo tagged and advanced to third.) Mark Kotsay singled to right, driving in Crespo and again putting runners at the corners. Halama loaded the bases by plunking Ryan Klesko. Hot-hitting Nevin, representing the tying run, settled into the batter’s box. He came into the game batting .318 with a 1.011 OPS, and had already homered earlier (giving him four homers in four games), but Halama struck him out to end the threat.

In the Seattle sixth, Bell led off with a single but was quickly erased when Lampkin grounded into a double play. On a 1-and-2 count, Núñez hit Ed Sprague, pinch-hitting for Halama. Suzuki followed with an RBI triple into the right-center-field gap, his sixth three-bagger and league-leading 104th hit of the season (in his 65th game). McLemore walked, and Padres skipper Bruce Bochy replaced Núñez with right-hander Tom Davey, who had pitched for Seattle in 1999. McLemore stole second base, but Davey stranded him there, as Boone flied out to right to end the inning. The Mariners now led, 7-2.

In the bottom of the sixth, right-hander José Paniagua was on the mound for the Mariners. With two outs, Gomez walked, Crespo singled and Mike Darr walked. For the second inning in a row, the Padres had the bases loaded. This time, future Hall of Famer Henderson was at bat. He had played for the Mariners in 2000, after being released by the Mets, and he signed as a free agent with the Padres before the season began. In a moment of déjà vu, Henderson also struck out. That seemed to deflate the Padres, who did not mount any threats through the rest of the game.

Right-hander David Lee took over the mound duties for San Diego in the ninth. McLemore greeted him with a double. With one out and first base open, the Padres decided to pitch to Olerud. Having already collected a single, double, and triple in the game, Olerud swung at Lee’s first offering and deposited it into the stands well beyond the right-field fence. His ninth home run of the season extended Seattle’s lead to 9-2. The homer was only the second ever hit into the upper deck in right field, an estimated 464 feet from home plate.10 The round-tripper also meant that Olerud had hit for the cycle.

Henderson singled to start the bottom of the ninth for the Padres and took second on defensive indifference, but Norm Charlton retired the next three Padres hitters, notching two strikeouts. Seattle’s win streak was increased to three games. The Mariners’ record improved to 52-14, with a major-league-leading 26-6 record on the road. This was their 21st victory in their last 24 games. Their 52 wins translated to the “second-best 66-game start since 1900,”11 next to the 1912 New York Giants (54-12).

For the Padres, Loewer was sent back to the minors. His major-league totals for 2001 consisted of two starts, both against the Mariners. In 4⅓ innings, he allowed 12 runs.12 Although Halama won his sixth game, he struggled in his next three starts, allowing 18 runs, and was relegated to the Mariners’ bullpen.

Olerud became the third Seattle player to hit for the cycle, adding his name to those of Jay Buhner (June 23, 1993) and Álex Rodríguez (June 5, 1997). The cycle against the Padres also marked him as the second of five players to hit for the cycle in 2001.13 

Olerud’s 4-for-5 performance increased his batting average to .333. After the game, he told reporters, “The triple is the hardest for me to get – somebody has to fall down or something for me to get a triple.”14 In both of his cycles, Olerud hit his sole triple of the season. More amazingly, this triple was his first since 1998, when he hit a career-high four three-baggers, and only the 12th of his 13-year big-league career.15

Author’s Note

This was Olerud’s second career cycle. His first came on September 11, 1997, while he played for the New York Mets. In front of the home crowd at Shea Stadium, Olerud was 4-for-5 with two runs scored and five driven in against the Montreal Expos.16 He also became the third player to accomplish the rare feat in an interleague game (and the second in 2001)17 and just the second (after Bob Watson), to hit for the cycle with both a National and American League team.18

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/SDN/SDN200106160.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2001/B06160SDN2001.htm

Video highlights of Olerud’s cycle can be found at https://www.mlb.com/video/olerud-hits-for-cycle-c33321951.

Photo credit: John Olerud, courtesy of the Seattle Mariners

Notes

1 Garcia pitched eight innings, allowing only one run. Jeff Nelson relieved him to pitch the ninth and gave up three more runs to the Padres.

2 The first game of the series (June 15) had an attendance of 60,918. This was third-best to this point in the season.

3 Larry LaRue, “Olerud Cruises on Cycle,” Spokane Spokesman-Review, June 17, 2001: C1, C11.

4 Toronto traded Olerud (with cash) to the Mets on December 20, 1996, for pitcher Robert Person. After the 1997 season, Olerud signed as a free agent with the Mets, and on December 15, 1999, he signed as a free agent with the Mariners.

5 Teammate Ichiro Suzuki was second-best in the junior circuit, batting .350 as play began on June 16.

6 Loewer made one appearance each for the Las Vegas Stars (in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League) and the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (in the A+ California League).

7 John Mafei, “Padres Dip Even Loewer in Loss to Visiting Seattle,” Temecula (California) Californian, June 17, 2001: 23.

8 In 2001, pitchers had to bat in interleague games played in the National League city.

9 Bernie Wilson, “Olerud Rides into History with Ninth-Inning Homer,” Vancouver (Washington) Columbian, June 17, 2001: B1, B5.

10 LaRue. The second deck was extended during stadium expansion in 1997. See Wilson.

11 Wilson.

12 Loewer did not pitch in 2002 and signed as a free agent with the Padres at the end of the season. He made five starts in 2003, pitching his final major-league game on June 7, 2003.

13 The other players to hit for the cycle in 2001 were Damion Easley (Detroit, June 8), Jeff Bagwell (Houston Astros, July 18), Jeff Frye (Toronto Blue Jays, August 17), and Miguel Tejada (Oakland Athletics, September 29).

14 LaRue.

15 As of the end of the 2001 season. Olerud played four more seasons in the majors, and he collected one more triple (on June 8, 2004), giving him 13 three-baggers in his 17-year career.

16 The Expos used 24 players in the nine-inning contest, including five pinch-hitters and six pitchers. The Mets won, 9-5.

17 Colorado’s Dante Bichette hit for the cycle on June 10, 1998, against the Texas Rangers. On June 8, 2001, just eight days before Olerud’s rare feat, Detroit’s Damion Easley hit for the cycle against the Milwaukee Brewers.

18 Watson hit for the cycle on June 24, 1977, while playing for the Houston Astros (NL), and again on September 15, 1979, while playing for the Boston Red Sox (AL).