Chicago Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant may have smacked a home run when he needed a double for the cycle Friday, but the long ball still helped him make history.
The home run gave Bryant two for the game, and he also added a triple and a single as the Cubs knocked off the Pittsburgh Pirates and recovered nicely from a blowout loss on Thursday afternoon at the Friendly Confines.
With his big day, Bryant became the first Cubs player to smack two home runs and a triple in the same game since Todd Walker did it in a June 2004 game against the Houston Astros. Bryant is just the second Cubs player to do it in the last 28 years.
2017 Chicago Sports Yearbook: History-Making Moments
Only 10 Cubs players have ever hit two home runs and a triple in a single game, and one of those players has done it twice. Billy Williams accomplished the feat twice in a seven year span, reaching the milestone in the 1964 and 1971 seasons.
If Bryant had hit a double in his final at-bat of the day, he would have become the first Cubs player to hit for the cycle (a single, double, triple, and home run in the same game) since Mark Grace accomplished the feat in 1993.
Only nine players in Cubs history have hit for the cycle, including Williams and Andre Dawson.
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All statistics obtained using Baseball Reference's Play Index.