Adrian Beltre Hits for Cycle vs. Astros: Stats, Highlights and Twitter Reaction

Adrian Beltre needed all of five innings to hit for a cycle Monday night against the Houston Astros. The Texas Rangers third baseman picked up a triple in the first inning, a double in the second, a single in the third and capped things off with a solo home run in the fifth.The Rangers posted a GIF of the four hits in succession:The highlight below offers a better look at Beltre's homer to left, which completed his cycle:According to ESPN Stats & Info, Beltre is just the third player in MLB history to hit for three different cycles over his career. The last time it happened was in 1933, per MLB.com's Andrew Simon.Globe Life Park tends to favor hitters, which has likely played a big factor in this stat from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Jeff Wilson:Heck, maybe Beltre can get another cycle Monday night and actually make this tweet from MLB.com's Anthony Castrovince happen:Given his achievement, this is a great time to appreciate just how good Beltre has been over his career. You don't generally see players at his position consistently produce both offensively and defensively over a period of so many years.Beltre has captured the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger Awards four times eachwhile making the All-Star Game on four occasions as well.The 36-year-old may not be in the discussion of best third baseman of all time, but he's definitely in the discussion of best of his era. Baseball America's Ben Badler put into perspective the totality of Beltre's work:According to Jay Jaffe's JAWS metric, which is used to help measure a player's Hall of Fame candidacy, Beltre is the sixth-best third baseman of all time, ahead of Brooks Robinson, Ron Santo and Paul Molitor, all of whom are enshrined in Cooperstown, New York, perBaseball-Reference.com.Beltre may be having his worst offensive season since his injury-shortened 2009 campaign, but his cycle Monday night was a nice reminder of his immense talent.
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