Hoskins starting to heat up as schedule gets tough
While a pair of rainouts threw the Phillies’ schedule out of whack, those couple of days off ended up being exactly the time Rhys Hoskins needed to get going at the plate.
Hoskins homered for the third straight game and provided all of the team’s offense with the second grand slam of his career in Wednesday’s series-clinching victory over the Seatllte Mariners.
The Phillies took two of three from the Mariners helped by the homer barrage by Hoskins. He had solo homers in each of the first two games and provided the big blow with his first grand slam since March 28, 2019, against Atlanta.
“It’s not often you get a couple of days to either rest and kind of regain some energy, or work,” Hoskins said. “It’s hard to take more swings than normal during the year because you’ve got to go play.”
The rainouts last week against the Mets allowed Hoskins time to work with hitting coach Kevin Long. They were lengthy sessions with the focus on Hoskins using more of his lower half.
“You always are teetering on what’s too much. Sometimes you just need to go hit, and hit, and hit, and hit and hit till you can’t,” Hoskins said. “We got a couple of pretty long sessions and it seems to be paying off.”
Hoskins lined a 2-1 pitch from Seattle
starter Logan Gilbert just inside the foul pole down the left field line with one out in the fourth inning.
Hoskins and the Phillies have a daunting run of games beginning Thursday night with the first of four against the Dodgers in Los Angeles.
When the Phillies return home, they host the Padres and Dodgers before a seven-game road trip against the Braves and Mets. That’s followed by home sets against former manager Gabe Kapler’s Giants and the Angels and then a trip to Milwaukee.
The Phillies are seven games behind the high-flying Mets and those teams on the schedule have a combined record of 137-85.