This just in: Kris Bryant is good. Bryant won the 2015 NL Rookie of the Year, and is taking things to another level in his second big-league season with the Chicago Cubs.
On Monday night against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ballpark, Bryant went 5-for-5 at the dish, with three homers, and two doubles. Get this: No one else in major-league history has ever hit three homers and two doubles in one game.
Kris Bryant doing unprecedented things (via @paul_boye) pic.twitter.com/s6cSHXOmU4
— keithlaw (@keithlaw) June 28, 2016
That’s 16 total bases on the night for Bryant, which is a Cubs franchise record.
Here’s video of Bryant’s second homer of the night:
And the third Bryant dinger of the evening:
And Jason Heyward trying to push Bryant out for a curtain call, on the road (h/t: @thrillbarton and @MSchwerha):
On the season, Bryant now leads position players in WAR (per FanGraphs) at 3.9. So, if he keeps this up, he’s going to have a pretty great MVP case when the season ends.
UPDATE: After the game (which the Cubs won 11-8), Bryant gave the game bat (or at least one of his bats) to a kid:
Watch what Bryant did for this kid. Now that’s cool shit. pic.twitter.com/auapH1PC5U
— Voice of reason (@Mrocks8Sonny) June 28, 2016