Long Ball Hall keeps delivering
First Phillies player since 1949 to have first 3 career hits as home runs
PHILADELPHIA » In the movie version, the latest scene in the saga of Long Ball Hall would end in truly cinematic fashion.
There’s Darick Hall, on the field at Citizens Bank Park, still in uniform, with his wife Ashley and mother Lynette. They’re watching the postgame fireworks display, after a game he won with a swing of his bat, over a team Hall’s Phillies are chasing for the playoffs. Before he faced questions from the media, before he tried to square all the “first Phillie since” stats, before he tried to put into words what three home runs in the first three nights of his big league career meant — there would be Hall, fireworks and a city skyline reflected in his eyes.
“This is something we work for for our whole life,” Rhys Hoskins said, providing the supplemental dialogue. “… He’s got to be on top of the world right now.”
Hall is certainly on top of the pitching that has come his way. His home run Friday night, the third of his young big league career, broke a tie to give the Phillies a 5-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals, bringing the Phils to within one game in the loss column in the chase for Wild Card spots.
“It felt really good,” Hall said. “I felt like taking that lead back gave us some momentum, and we were able to build on it, shut the door. And I think that’s why we won.”
Hall turned on a 1-1 changeup from Miles Mikolas to break a 3-3 tie in the bottom of the sixth. It’s Hall’s third homer in his third major league start. He joins Ed Sanicki in 1949 as the only Phillies since 1900 and only nine players since 1961 to have their first three career hits as home runs.
Those around him credit his approach as being vital to stepping into the middle-of-the-or