Trea Turner hits for the cycle for the second time in his career, both times vs the Rockies

Trea Turner homered the first time up tonight, taking Colorado Rockies’ right-hander Peter Lambert deep to center to lead off the home-half of the first with his ninth career leadoff home run (tying Alfonso Soriano’s franchise record for leadoff blasts, though Soriano hit all of his in one season in 2006).

Turner reached on an infield single the second time up, in the bottom of the second inning, then tripled to lead off in the fifth, leaving him a double away from the cycle, and then he connected for the two-base hit he needed in the home-half of the seventh, hitting for the cycle for the second time in his career.

It’s the fourth cycle overall in Washington Nationals’ franchise history.

The first time Turner did it? Against the same Rockies, of course, because why not. Back on April 25, 2017, in Coors Field, Turner singled in the first inning, doubled to left field in the second, hit a two-run homer to right field in the sixth inning, and then did the hardest part last, hitting a bases-loaded triple in the seventh, on a seven-RBI night against Colorado.

Turner joined Brad Wilkerson and Cristian Guzman the first time he hit for the cycle, but he is the first player in franchise history to do it twice.

He finished the night 4 for 5 with two runs scored and two RBIs. Go Trea Go.

So was Turner aware that he only needed the double when he came up in the seventh?

“Pretty aware,” he told MASN’s Alex Chappell in an on-field interview after the Nationals’ 11-1 win.

“If I don’t remember my teammates will remind me, but I think a lot of luck has got to go into something like that, and I’m glad that we were on the winning side of it, and it was a good game and hopefully we can come out tomorrow and win again.”

Was his manager aware?

“Oh yeah,” Davey Martinez said in his post-game press conference, “but you never bring it up. It’s just like a no-hitter, unless it’s the other team, then we mention it every inning, but you just kind of — hopefully he gets that hit, but what an unbelievable — he had great at bats all day today, it’s pretty awesome.”