Mike Trout Was Born To Hit For The Cycle

It's almost surprising that it took Mike Trout this long—his 224th career major league game—to hit for the cycle. But this generation's prototypical five-tool player rectified that last night, and finished it off in style.

Trout's been fantastic again this season. If you hear less about him, that's because the Angels are struggling, he's no longer a rookie (just a 21-year-old superstar), and his number are slightly off last year's, when he put up one of the all-time great offensive seasons to not garner an MVP. But his triple slash is .293/.373/.558—if we're already too jaded by his short career to be impressed by that, well, blame Trout for being so damn good, so damn young.

He beat out an infield single in the third, and tripled in the fourth. There's your speed. He cleared the bases with a double down the line in the sixth. There's your situational hitting. In the eighth, with Anaheim already up 11-0 on Seattle, everyone in the ballpark knew that only the homer was left.

The Fox Sports West announcers were waiting for it, bringing up the likelihood of Trout swinging for the fences on a 2-0 pitch. Trout was aware too:

“I was like, ‘Man, I have a triple, double and a single.’ I got the 2-0 there and I said, ‘Hey, if I’m going to hit one, it’s going to be this pitch.’”

So, a little history. At 21 years and 288 days, Mike Trout is the youngest American Leaguer ever to hit for the cycle. He's the fourth-youngest overall since the dead-ball era, and the youngest since Cesar Cedeno did it for Houston in 1972. Trout is the first person, of any age, to go for the cycle while driving in five runs and stealing a base since 1932. Just Mike Trout doing Mike Trout things. "He's supernatural," starter Jerome Williams said.

After the game, Trout said a scary thing. He said there's "more to come." Maybe he was just speaking in general terms, but, knock on wood, he's got at least 15 years left in him. Do you want to bet he can't hit for another cycle? Another few cycles? The record for a career is three. Mike Trout's going to do amazing statistical things, but I can't think of a more appropriate record that "most cycles" to highlight his unique skill set—that is, having an unfair amount of every skill.