Marcus Semien has owned May.
The Toronto Blue Jays’ second baseman has been one of the hottest dudes at the plate during this month.
On Friday, he fell just a single short of hitting for the cycle. And with just a few days to go, Semien is closing in on leading all major league batters in hits for the entire month.
#MarcusSemien hits his 9th bomb of the season for the @BlueJays, who have won 15 of their last 22 games. What a pick up
The #MLBbro agreed to move his elite SS glove to second base for Bo Bichette and he's been the vet force that Toronto's need to hang tough in the #ALEast https://t.co/vnbum1LJRh
— MLBbro.com (@MLBbrodotcom) May 16, 2021
Not as rare as a no-hitter, but for a major league hitter, the cycle is one of the most impressive feats you can accomplish in the game. To get a cycle, a player needs to get hits in four different fashions: single, double, triple and home run. In the history of baseball, with more than 200,000 games played, there have been only 330 times where players have checked all four boxes on the list.
Against the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night, Semien got the hardest parts of the cycle done early when he recorded extra-base hits in each of his first three at-bats. The Toronto leadoff hitter got the game going with a double. In the second inning, he had one of the most exciting plays in baseball when he hit a triple. His final hit of the night came on a fifth-inning home run.
Marcus Semien CYCLE watch ?
2B ✅
3B ✅
HR ✅
1B ❓pic.twitter.com/9PmPS4s1BK— Tim and Friends (@timandfriends) May 22, 2021
You would think after getting those out of the way it would be a breeze to get just one single in his next three at-bats, but that was not in the baseball Gods’ cards for him that night.
Semien is batting .366 this month and leads all hitters in hits with 32 and 16 extra-base hits. His 28 runs batted in and 11 home runs would qualify to lead all major league second basemen this year; showing that moving from one side of the diamond to the other has added no extra stress on his bat.
The star power at second base in the American League is a little less than what Semien saw at the shortstop position in previous seasons, so if he can stay hot, he could be on his way to the first All-Star appearance of his career.
He’ll have a chance to keep pounding out hits this month as his Blue Jays finish their series with the Rays Monday afternoon.