Hoskins holds his swing, but doesn’t let himself off hook
PHILADELPHIA » It had only been a little while, and certainly the moment was still as fresh to Rhys Hoskins’ mind’s eye as it had been frustrating when his other eyes didn’t see the third strike veteran umpire Joe West said (loudly) that he saw.
Strike. Three. Call.
With the bases loaded. A wouldbe tying run on third, a would-be game-winning run on second ... and Cesar Hernandez, the second straight batter that Blue Jays reliever Ryan Tepera had just walked, anticipating a celebration on first.
All three runners, a locked-and-loaded crowd of fans who had witnessed a deep Phillies resurrection on this Friday night standing to see the last step of the glorious comeback; all them and excitable manager Gabe Kapler, too.
All watched Hoskins walk away with a second out rather than a walkoff whatever in this ninth inning. Then they’d see Odubel Herrera bounce to second for a final out in a 6-5 Phillies loss to the Blue Jays.
Of course, all of them will be expecting Rhys Hoskins to do something differently the next day.
“Actually, I leaned over to (bench coach Rob Thomson) at one point late and I said, ‘If Rhys comes to the plate, we’re going to win this game,’” Kapler said afterward. “And I really felt confident in that. He is just the guy that we want up in that situation going forward for so many reasons. I thought he worked a good at-bat. He actually had two great at-bats, a walk and an RBI double tonight.
“So there’s a lot that went well for him. He’s the guy that we want in that situation. We were in the spot that we wanted. Great job by Cesar getting Rhys up there. It just didn’t work out in our favor tonight.”
Ah, the win-some, losesome thing, the very fiber of the sport. Doesn’t make it any easier to take.
Hoskins couldn’t be sure that West’s wellpaid 65-year-old eyes had it right. Nor did he want to find out. Asked if he’d seen the replay of that 2-2 pitch, he said flatly, “No, I haven’t.”
Well, there hadn’t been much time. Of course, the real reason Hoskins had stayed away from the clubhouse computer is simply that it would gain him nothing in the long run, just as it hadn’t in the merriless moment.
For this pitch that may or may not have been a tough call on any umpire’s eyes was certainly too close to take in the eyes of professional baseball hitters. Rhys Hoskins is just that and more.
“They called it a strike,” Hoskins said. “I thought it was a little off, but that doesn’t really matter. It’s too close to take in that situation.
“It’s unacceptable. You’ve got to put the ball in play and give yourself a chance. That’s really all it is.”
What didn’t make it any easier was the way the air deflated out of lightly attended (as usual) Citizens Bank Park, which nevertheless had a loud contingent of die-hards who looked past the 6-1 lead the Blue Jays had posted by the fifth inning on shaky (to put it kindly) starter Zach Eflin and the then-silent home hitters.
But Eflin had at least marked the occasion with a show of resistance at the plate in the form of a long home run into the Phillies bullpen in the third inning. It helped bring his teammates to life. Hoskins, who had spent much of May trying to find his way out of an annoying slump, was right in the middle of that. He doubled home Hernandez in the eighth to bring the Phillies to within 6-4, and set the stage for what could have been a sweet, ninth-inning rally.
Except that as part of working out of his little slump, Hoskins had obviously been making a concerted effort to restore his usual sharp sense of plate patience which had gone on hiatus of late.
But Kapler says it’s all coming back now.
“I think he was successfully patient. I also think he was successfully aggressive on some pitches,” Kapler said of Hoskins. “If you go back four or five games, Rhys has been swinging the bat pretty good and I’m not talking about lots of hits. I’m talking about swings with bat speed. I’m talking attacking the baseball. I’m talking about getting the ball in the air. There have been some good things happening for Rhys. He’s very close to taking off for us.”
He came very close to launching an outside slider earlier in the count against Tepera. Just a touch late. The straighter, quicker pitch which then came ... the one that upon further review was just a little off the plate? Strike. Three. Call. Consider that a fastball that came straight from a learning curve.
“I was just trying to get a pitch to hit, just trying to simplify it as much as I can,” said Hoskins, still struggling at .239 while stuck on six homers. “When you have a pitcher on the ropes like that, I think that’s the best way to go about it, and he made a good pitch. But like I said, unacceptable in that situation.”
Perhaps. But that’s a perfectly acceptable conclusion by a player who would like to see himself in the same situation Saturday.