Hoskins blows up Chicago’s squeeze try

PHILADELPHIA >> Practice may make perfect but mental preparation was just as important Saturday night in order for Rhys Hoskins to make what possibly was a gamesaving play against the White Sox.

With Chicago rallying in the seventh inning against otherwise cruising Aaron Nola, with two runners in scoring position and just one out, Hoskins broke with a Nola pitch to Yolmer Sanchez.

He had sniffed out a suicide squeeze bunt, just as the Phillies’ coaching scouts knew he should.

“Before every series we go over the team that we’re going to play,” Hoskins said after the Phillies held on for a 3-2 victory at Citizens Bank Park. “The coaching staff did a great job (knowing) that this team likes to run that play. I don’t know how many times they have but it’s quite a bit throughout the season. They gave us a handful of guys they might run it with and Sanchez is one of them. So we were prepared. Without being prepared, we probably don’t get that out.”

And Nola may not have gotten his 10th win out of 12 decisions on the season.

Sanchez dragged a Nola pitch onto the infield grass, but probably just a touch harder than he would have liked. With Hoskins breaking in, it wasn’t much of a risk to barehand and flip to catcher Andrew Knapp ... who was rolled over by runner Eloy Jiminez but managed to hold onto the ball for the out.

“It’s tough,” Hoskins added. “If the ball is in a certain spot it’s almost indefensible just because of the timing of everything. With a left-handed hitter up I can’t really crash right away because if he swings 45 feet away, well, that’s not very comfortable. We just got lucky because it was a hard bunt and credit to Knappy for sticking his nose in there.”

With that rough-and-tumble second out done, Nola then bore down and struck out pinch-hitter Matt Skole to exit the seventh with a 2-1 Phillies lead intact.

As it turned out, the Phillies loaded the bases in the bottom half, resulting in Nola getting lifted for pinch-hitter J.T. Realmuto after only 94 pitches. The Phillies would score once more, then Nick Pivetta would pitch two innings for his first save, surviving a ninth-inning Chisox rally in the process.

As for Nola ... “He looked about as physically strong as we’ve seen him look all year long,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “He certainly could have kept going in that game. ... Tremendous job from Noles, and Pivetta was equally as sharp. We needed that from both those guys and they delivered in a major way.”

Just as Hoskins and his school of coaching scouts had done earlier.

“It was a sensational play,” Kapler said. “I don’t think you can play that ball any better and it was a great tag as well. You have to be mentally prepared for that to happen and make that kind of play.”