Dodgers left fielder AJ Pollock didn’t waste any time scoring a run during Saturday’s Cactus League game against the San Diego Padres at Peoria Stadium. The 33-year-old Hebron, Connecticut native homered on a fly ball to center field with one out in the top of the first inning to give the Dodgers an early 1-0 lead. It would also be the first of three hits on the day for Pollock.

The Dodgers increased their lead in the third inning with help from Dodgers second baseman Chris Taylor, who walked during his at-bat. Pollock followed with a sharp line-drive double to center, and he and Taylor and would come around to score the Dodgers second and third runs of the afternoon on a line-drive single to center by Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner to make it 3-0.

With a home run and a double already crossed off Pollock’s list, he needed a single and a triple to hit for the cycle. He made easy work of the single in the fifth inning, leaving only a triple, the most difficult of the four. We will never know if Pollock would have hit that elusive triple to complete his cycle, as he was replaced by Cuban-born Rangel Ravelo in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Hitting for the cycle is a batter’s equivalent of a pitcher tossing a no-hitter and has been called one of the “rarest” and most “difficult feats” in baseball. Pollock was so close to completing the cycle but unfortunately was a triple, the most difficult of the four, shy; or as Orange County Register Dodgers beat writer Bill Plunkett likes to call it “a tri-shy-cle” – a triple shy of the cycle.

But maybe this is just a tiny glimpse of what’s to come during the 2021 regular season for AJ Pollock.

Let’s Play Ball!

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