Indianapolis Indians first baseman Jeff Clement hit for the cycle tonight, becoming the first Indianapolis Indian to accomplish the feat since Alex Presley on June 27th, 2010. Clement accomplished the feat after a triple in the bottom of the seventh inning.
“To be honest, I wasn’t even thinking about it,” Clement said of the cycle during his triple. “I knew it was deep out there, I saw the hop it took. I probably wouldn’t have gone to third, because I’m not real fast, but since it’s so far out there, I decided to go for it and got into third and didn’t know until the third baseman said something to me that it was for the cycle.”
Clement started off his night with a leadoff double in the bottom of the second. He added his single in the bottom of the third inning. His sixth homer of the year came to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning. Then, with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Clement tripled, bringing in two runs to extend Indianapolis’ lead to 7-2, and completing his 4-for-4 day.
Clement is hitting for a .307/.391/.536 line in 153 at-bats on the year. His triple tonight was the first of the year, and his first since the 2010 season.
Tim started Pirates Prospects in 2009 from his home in Virginia, which was 40 minutes from where Pedro Alvarez made his pro debut in Lynchburg. That year, the Lynchburg Hillcats won the Carolina League championship, and Pirates Prospects was born from Tim's reporting along the way. The site has grown over the years to include many more writers, and Tim has gone on to become a credentialed MLB reporter, producing Pirates Prospects each year, and will publish his 11th Prospect Guide this offseason. He has also served as the Pittsburgh Pirates correspondent for Baseball America since 2019. Behind the scenes, Tim is an avid music lover, and most of the money he gets paid to run this site goes to vinyl records.
Does he deserve one more shot? Given his pedigree of being a former Top 3 pick? Injuries have taken a toll on his career, but he seems to be a more complete hitter now. Not all about the long ball for him anymore.
I’ll have more on Clement in tomorrow’s prospect notebook.