Cubs catcher Carson Kelly makes history on special day in Sacramento

Cubs catcher Carson Kelly tried to push any thought of history out of his mind.

The 30-year-old was a triple shy of the cycle – almost an oxymoron of a statement given the difficulty of scampering across the bases to collect three bases. No Cub had achieved the feat since Mark Grace on May 9, 1993 – before Kelly was born. Couple that with the fact that Kelly had two career triples and rewriting history seemed like a longshot.

[Cubs Takeaways: What we learned in blowout of Athletics in MLB debut in West Sacramento]

“I’m like, ‘It’s not in my favor here. I gotta run a triple here?’” Kelly told reporters in West Sacramento, Calif. after the Cubs’ 18-3 rout of the Athletics. “The two times I hit triples, both guys like fell down, like, ran into the wall and fell down.

“It’s hard. The odds are not in your favor on that one.”

Instead, Kelly had a simple mindset as he stepped into the batter’s box in the eighth inning at Sutter Health Park.

“This time, I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m just gonna put a good at-bat together,’” Kelly said.

He did that. The backstop worked a 3-2 count and then crushed a 104.8-mph liner to right-center field. The ball caromed off the wall and bounced.

“I saw it ricochet, and I was like, ‘Oh boy, this is it right here. I gotta go,’” Kelly said.

Kelly kicked into overdrive – a 16-3 lead be damned – and had one goal: reach third base.

“I didn’t realize he had a chance at a cycle,” his manager Craig Counsell told reporters after the game. “But when that ball kicked off the wall, the dugout started going crazy, so I figured something was going on.”

Kelly darted around second, reached third without a throw and celebrated the hit as if it were a go-ahead triple in a one-run game.

“I know Mark Grace, too, in Arizona, yeah,” Kelly – who spent five seasons with the Diamondbacks said. “I’ll have to hit him up. I mean, pretty special. Great accomplishment, something that I never thought I would get.

“I’m just very fortunate and blessed and a lot of hard work, a lot of great teammates pumping me up. All in all, just a very special night.”

Tuesday was always going to be one for the history books. The A’s were playing their first game in West Sacramento – they’ll play there for three seasons before moving to Las Vegas – and had a sellout crowd of 12,192 at the Triple-A home of the Sacramento RiverCats.

But Kelly made the day historic for more than one reason.

“They’re fun days, man,” Counsell said. “They’re rare days and they’re once-in-a-lifetime type days for players.”