Hoskins snaps skid with first big league hit
PHILADELPHIA » Rhys Hoskins hadn’t gone four straight games without a hit in more than a calendar year and two levels of baseball.
So when at-bats 11, then 12, passed without a safety for a hitter whose ascent through the minors was fueled by flawless execution at the plate, Hoskins understandably might have gripped the bat a tad harder.
Hoskins found the release he was after with an opposite-way fister in the fifth inning of Sunday’s 6-2 loss to the New York Mets, the 24-year-old’s first bigleague hit.
“You dream about that moment for a long, long time,” Hoskins said. “And I was happy to do it in that situation, too.”
Hoskins punched a 2-2 delivery from Mets starter Chris Flexen to right field, just out of the leaping grasp of fellow rookie first baseman Dominic Smith to load the bases with none out. The Phillies scored just once in the inning, but Hoskins contributed to resolve the oh-for on his major league resume.
“I think he started to press a little bit and he was anxious to get that hit,” manager Pete Mackanin said. “So I think the monkey is off his back now. Everybody was happy to see that on the bench.”
Despite the 0-for-12 start, Hoskins has had productive atbats. He’s walked in three of four starts. In the first inning Sunday, he beat out a fielder’s choice with the bases loaded to drive in a run, his first big league RBI.
Though that plate appearance wasn’t optimal, it lessened some pressure.
“A productive out at least, but that’s a situation, especially in the top of the first when they scored a couple of runs you want to do some damage with the ball,” Hoskins said. “I wasn’t able to do that but I got the job done.”
Hoskins feels as though he’s starting to settle in. He’s adjusting to a new position in the outfield, though Sunday was his first start at first base. Part of the process involves learning the routine of Philadelphia and more rigidly sticking to his approach at the plate early in counts, zoning in on pitches to his liking, which are unsurprisingly scarcer in the bigs.
But Hoskins’ batting eye and .284/.385/.581 slash line warranted his promotion as much as the raw power of 29 homers and 91 RBIs at Triple-A Lehigh Valley this year.
In adjusting to the new setting, that emphasis on process is dominating his attention.
“You try to control the controllables,” he said. “You hear that all the time. There’s not much you can do once the ball leaves the bat, so I thought I was having good at-bats for the most part. Some things weren’t going my way, and these guys are pretty good up here, so it’s a combination of that.”
*** The good and the bad of Odubel Herrera seem to incessantly clash.
On one hand, the mercurial outfielder reached base three times, singling in the first inning to extend his hitting streak to 16 games, the longest for a Phillie in a season since Raul Ibanez (18 in 2010).
But in the fifth, he was thrown at third on a bizarre base-running sequence that is becoming all too common. With the bases loaded, Nick Williams lofted a middledistance fly ball to center field for the first out. It may have been deep enough for Freddy Galvis to tag and score.
But third-base coach Juan Samuel held Galvis. The throw from Michael Conforto went to the plate and kicked away from catcher Travis d’Arnaud, at which point Herrera, oblivious of Galvis being held, broke for third. He reached the bag in time to be tagged out.
Both player and coach the incident.
“It’s definitely frustrating because I knew I messed up,” Herrera said through a translator. “That was a situation where we could’ve tied the game or gone ahead, but I messed up and I’ll learn from that.”
“The mistake he made was he assumed that Freddy was going downplayed to go,” Mackanin said. “He saw him take off but then he put his head down. The only thing he did is he didn’t keep his head up. He just put his head down and ran to third. That was the only mistake he made.”
Mackanin chose larger context.
“I prefer to say that he’s more positive than negative, and if you look back on the last six, seven weeks, he has not made many mistakes,” Mackanin said. “Today was an innocent mistake. He just didn’t keep his head up. That’s the only thing he did. So I’ll take him any day.” to put it in a
*** NOTES » Zach Eflin drew the loss but was solid in 5.1 innings except for — what else — a pair of home runs allowed. He walked none and retired 10 straight batters at one point, but two-run shots by Michael Conforto and Curtis Granderson dropped the 23-year-old’s record to 1-4. Eflin has allowed 26 career home runs in 21 big league starts, including 14 in 10 starts this year covering 59.1 innings. The culprit Sunday was a pair of hanging curveballs. … Jorge Alfaro notched his second multi-hit game in his third start back in the bigs, singling twice. He has hit safely in each start since being called up as an injury replacement for Andrew Knapp Aug. 5, going 5-for-14 (all singles). The Colombian catcher was just 2-for-16 in six games last September. He’s still in search of his first big league extra-base hit. … Speaking of long balls, the two Mets dingers mean they’ve parked 57 home runs in their last 26 games in Philadelphia, outhomering the Phillies 55-17 over the last seven series at Citizens Bank Park. The Mets are 32-13 at CBP since 2013.