June 30, 2024: Rangers’ rookie Wyatt Langford makes history with the first cycle of season

On June 27, 2024, the defending World Series champion Texas Rangers traveled to Baltimore for a four-game series with the Orioles. It marked the first time the two teams had faced each other since the Rangers swept the Orioles in the 2023 American League Division Series. The home team responded with retribution, winning the first three games of the series. That gave Baltimore, which was in first place in the AL East Division with a record of 53-30, a four-game winning streak. Texas, in third place in the AL West at 37-46, had slumped to a six-game losing streak.

The final game of the series, on June 30, was set to be broadcast on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball. The 23,439 fans at Oriole Park at Camden Yards and the national television audience were treated to a hitting spectacle, as the Rangers exploded for 11 runs. Rookie left fielder Wyatt Langford led the way, hitting for the first cycle of the 2024 season. His cycle-clinching homer also gave him a historic rookie home-run feat.

The Rangers selected Langford with the fourth overall pick in baseball’s July 2023 amateur draft. Signing on July 18, 2023, the Florida Gator All-American played 44 games in the minors that season, rapidly rising from Rookie League to Triple A. He batted a combined .360 (58-for-161), with a 1.157 OPS. Langford entered 2024 as the number-2 prospect in the Rangers’ farm system and the number-6 prospect in all of baseball.1 He made Texas’s Opening Day roster but sustained a right hamstring strain on May 4. After a stay on the injured list and a three-game rehabilitation stint with the Triple-A Round Rock Express (Pacific Coast League), the 22-year-old Langford rejoined the Rangers in late May. He came into the June 30 game batting .248 with 14 extra-base hits, including three home runs, in 59 games.

For the series finale, a pair of left-handers faced each other on the mound. For Texas, 33-year-old Andrew Heaney was making his 16th start. He had lost his first six decisions of the season, and although he had not allowed more than three earned runs in a game since April, his record was now 2-9, mainly due to lack of run support. His pitch count in almost all of his starts had reached 80 before the end of the fourth or fifth inning.

For Baltimore, 30-year-old Cole Irvin made his 13th start, seeking to give the Orioles a sweep of their own. With a 3.74 ERA, he was in search of his seventh win. He had been hit hard in his two previous starts, allowing 13 runs in just over eight innings pitched.

Each team got on the scoreboard in the second inning. The Rangers’ Adolis García led off the top of the inning by being hit by an Irvin pitch, but he was forced at second on Nathaniel Lowe’s grounder to third. Lowe was still on first when center fielder Derek Hill batted with two outs. Hill, who had been “recalled [from Triple A] in this week’s roster reshuffle,” had homered off the Orioles’ Cade Povish in the previous night’s game.2 Against Irvin, Hill connected on a two-run home run, giving Texas the early lead. Baltimore answered in the bottom half, when Austin Hays doubled and scored on Ryan O’Hearn’s RBI single.

Langford, who had flied out in his first at-bat, led off the fourth by stroking a 104-mph hit to the 13-foot “Great Wall of Baltimore” in left field.3 He was aggressive out of the batter’s box, showcasing his speed as the ball sailed over Hays’ glove and hit the wall, 389 feet from home plate. (The launch angle was 22 degrees.) Langford raced safely to third base. According to Statcast, that smash would have been a home run in 22 of 30 major-league ballparks.4 Langford came home when Nathaniel Lowe singled to center.

Irvin then walked Hill, and Andrew Knizner singled to left-center; Lowe scored and Hill and Knizner ended up at third and second after the throw to the plate. After Irvin retired Davis Wendzel, Marcus Semien hit a grounder to third baseman Jordan Westburg, who threw out Hill at the plate. With runners now at the corners, Josh Smith continued the Rangers’ rally with a single, driving in Knizner.

It was a 5-1 game, and Irvin’s day on the mound was over. His pitches, observed the Baltimore Sun, “neither consistently found the strike zone nor fooled the Rangers.”5 He was replaced by Nick Vespi after surrendering five runs on five hits and two walks, and he also hit two batters.

Baltimore tallied a second run in the bottom of the fourth. Heaney hit Hays with a pitch and O’Hearn singled to right. With two outs, Heston Kjerstad lined a double into left-center, driving in Hays to cut the deficit to 5-2.

The Rangers broke the game open in the fifth. García doubled to start the inning, and Langford rolled a grounder to right-center and stretched it into an RBI double. “How I was raised, I guess,” Langford told reporters when asked about his aggressive running.6 Lowe singled on the first offering he saw from Vespi, and Langford scored the Rangers’ seventh run. Lowe was out trying to get to second base on the play, but Hill followed with his second home run of the game and third in two days, making the score 8-2.7

Langford’s sixth-inning single left him a home run shy of a cycle. When he came up in the eighth for his fifth at-bat of the game, he acknowledged that “I was trying to hit a home run. It kind of speaks for itself.”8 Robbie Grossman led off the inning with a grounder to third baseman Westburg, who did not make a clean play, and Grossman reached on the error. García walked to give Langford two runners on base.

Langford delivered, driving a 1-and-0 pitch from Matt Krook9 over the wall in left. Speaking with ESPN after the game, Langford noted, “The home run was my favorite hit, I think that’s a pretty common answer.”10 The ball traveled 404 feet.

José Ureña pitched the final two frames for Texas, allowing two singles in the ninth but stranding both runners. With the blowout 11-2 victory, the Rangers ended their losing streak. Heaney struck out 10 in his seven innings of work, earning his third victory of the year.

Limited to just seven base hits, Baltimore dropped back into a tie atop the AL East with the New York Yankees. Irvin’s record fell to 6-5. It was only the second time in their past 29 games that the Orioles had failed to hit a home run.

In going 4-for-5, Langford lifted his batting average to .260. (He batted .309 in the month of June with a .910 OPS, going hitless in only seven games.) Accomplishing the cycle in his 60th major-league game, Langford became the second Rangers rookie and 12th player in franchise history to hit for the cycle.11 With his round-tripper, he also became the first rookie in major-league history to hit an inside-the-park home run (April 28), hit a grand slam (June 22), and hit for the cycle (June 30).12 His skipper, Bruce Bochy, said, “He’s just an exciting player. You love how aggressive he is. No fear on the bases. It’s just fun to watch him.”13

Langford finished with a .253 batting average and 16 home runs in 134 games as a rookie in 2024. Baseball-Reference.com credited him with 3.9 Wins Above Replacement, third on the Rangers behind Corey Seager and Semien. Langford was seventh in the AL Rookie of the Year voting.14 The Rangers finished third in the AL West. The Orioles came in second to the Yankees in the AL East and were swept by the Kansas City Royals in the best-of-three AL wild-card series.

It was the first cycle of four cycles in 2024; Langford’s performance was followed by Houston’s Yordan Alvarez (July 21 against the Seattle Mariners), Miami’s Xavier Edwards (July 28 against the Milwaukee Brewers), and Philadelphia’s Weston Wilson (August 15 against the Washington Nationals).

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Thomas Merrick and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Wyatt Langford, 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/BAL/BAL202406300.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2024/B06300BAL2024.htm

Video highlights of Langford’s cycle can be found at https://www.mlb.com/video/wyatt-langford-hits-for-the-cycle.

Notes

1 Sam Cannon, “Texas Rangers Rookie Wyatt Langford Makes History by Hitting for the Cycle,” SI.com, July 1, 2024, https://www.si.com/fannation/mlb/fastball/history/texas-rangers-rookie-outfielder-wyatt-langford-makes-history-by-hitting-for-the-cycle-vs-baltimore-orioles-01j1p0q3qmha. According to various Pre-2024 prospect rankings, Major League Baseball ranked Langford at number 6, Baseball America ranked him at number 5, and Baseball Prospectus ranked him at number 2.

2 Joe Trezza, “Langford Caps Torrid June with 11th Cycle in Rangers’ History,” MLB.com, June 30, 2024, https://www.mlb.com/news/wyatt-langford-hits-for-cycle/. Hill joined the Rangers as a free agent on December 27, 2023. He began the season in the minors (at Triple-A Round Rock) but played five games for Texas between May 21 and June 2. He was then sent to Triple A again and was granted free agency on June 11. Three days later, Hill re-signed with Texas. After another short stint in the minors, he was called up to rejoin the Rangers on June 26. Hill hit three home runs in two days.

3 Prior to the 2022 season, the Orioles changed the distance from home plate to left-center field from 364 feet to 400 feet, and the distance from home to deep left-center from 382 feet to 410 feet. They also raised the height of the left-field wall from 7 feet, 4 inches to 13 feet. In November 2024, the Orioles announced that they would again change the configuration of the left-field wall: “Instead of needing to clear parts of the former wall that were once 384 and 398 feet, the deeper parts will only be 374 and 376. The height of the wall will no longer be 13 feet, but rather 8 in some areas and 6 feet, 11 inches in others.” See Jake Rill, “A ‘Happier Medium’: After 3 Years, O’s Modifying Left-Field Wall Again,” MLB.com, November 15, 2024, https://www.mlb.com/news/orioles-camden-yards-left-field-wall-modifications.

4 Trezza.

5 Childs Walker, “O’s Get Clobbered as Irvin Struggles Again,” Baltimore Sun, July 1, 2024: D1.

6 CBS News, “Rangers’ Wyatt Langford Is 1st Major Leaguer to Hit for the Cycle in 2024,” CBSNews.com, July 1, 2024, https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/rangers-wyatt-langford-is-1st-major-leaguer-to-hit-for-the-cycle-in-2024/.

7 The 28-year-old Hill hit .256 with three homers in 16 games for the Rangers in 2024. Texas put him on waivers in July and he was selected by the San Francisco Giants on July 23. He appeared in just five games for the Giants before he was selected off waivers by the Miami Marlins on August 3. He finished the season with 32 appearances for the Marlins. Hill’s four homers with Miami gave him a total of seven for the season.

8 “Rangers’ Wyatt Langford Is 1st Major Leaguer to Hit for the Cycle in 2024.”

9 This relief appearance was Krook’s only appearance of the season for Baltimore, giving him an 18.00 ERA in one inning pitched.

10 Lawrence Dow, “Rangers Rookie Langford Hits for the Cycle in Orioles Defeat,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, July 2, 2024: B1.

11 The first Texas Rangers rookie to hit for the cycle was Oddibe McDowell, who did so on July 23, 1985, against the Cleveland Indians. It was the 59th game of McDowell’s major-league career. There have been 12 cycles in Texas franchise history: Adrian Beltré hit for the cycle twice while playing for the Rangers (on August 24, 2012, against the Minnesota Twins, and again on August 3, 2015, against the Houston Astros). This number (12) includes a cycle accomplished by Washington Senators’ Jim King, as the Senators (1961-1971) are considered part of the current Rangers franchise. King hit for the cycle on May 26, 1964, against the Boston Red Sox.

12 Langford was also the first player (not just a rookie) to accomplish the home run triad in the first 60 games of his major-league career.

13 Trezza.

14 Luis Gil of the New York Yankees was the 2024 AL Rookie of the Year.