Some fans love cycles. Some are indifferent to them. Some get annoyed whenever an announcer says a player is a "triple away from the cycle," as if Chief Wilson or Willie Wilson or even Mookie Wilson were up and a triple was actually in the realm of possibility.
In the top of the seventh on Thursday, Shohei Ohtani wasn't a triple away from the cycle, but merely a single away, having homered in the first, doubled in the third and tripled in the fifth. In a terrific eight-pitch duel against Rays reliever Hunter Wood, Ohtani fell behind in the count, worked it full with two good takes, fouled off two fastballs -- one inside, one away -- and then saw the first slider of the at-bat and lined a soft single into right-center.