After failing to hustle, Hoskins regrets shouting at a fan
PHILADELPHIA » It had not been a productive night in what may have been Rhys Hoskins’ biggest majorleague game, simply because of who the Phillies were playing.
“I’ve never been in a playoff baseball game,” said Hoskins, the second-year slugger. “But I imagine that’s what it feels like.”
Before a sellout crowd Monday at Citizens Bank Park, with certainly more than half the stands occupied by visiting non-dignitaries from Greater New York,
Hoskins and the Phillies were on their way to laying an egg of a game. Jorge Alfaro’s single to lead off the sixth inning was also the Phillies’ first hit of the night. Later that same inning, with two runners in scoring position and one out, Hoskins would fail at the plate, swinging at a third strike, then not noticing the ball slip away from Yankees catcher Austin Romine.
So the throw to first to
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complete the out was routine. Hoskins’ reaction to it all was not.
“Someone said something in the stands that obviously triggered me,” Hoskins said after a 4-2 Yankees victory. “I was pretty frustrated in the at-bat that I just had. I compounded the mistake and got caught up in the moment. It shouldn’t happen. It can’t happen. But it did and that’s how it goes.”
Hoskins, who not only struck out but made it appear he didn’t hustle when the ball slipped away - but only because he didn’t see it - took exception to a shouted comment by a fan as he was heading back to the dugout.
So what set the usually cool Hoskins off?
“You know, I couldn’t even tell you,” he said. “Obviously there’s a lot going on. Big game, big situation in the game, it’s late in the game. So, I don’t even remember. Can’t even tell you what he looks like.”
Two possible descriptions: Geek with a goofy grin going on underneath a NY cap ... or guy with a red-faced scowl going on while ripping off a Phillies hat.
That jog the memory at all?
“I wish I could (remember),” Hoskins said. “Obviously there’s a lot going on and there was a lot of thought about the at-bat. (I was) pretty frustrated with that and got caught up in it.”
Either way, Hoskins and a young Phillies team more accustomed to crowd sizes half of what greeted them for the series-opener certainly looked like they got caught up in the wave of love for all things Yankee. The pro-New York crowd was loud, boisterous ... and since their team is now 5125, oh so practiced at the art.
That was of little matter to manager Gabe Kapler.
“We knew that there were fans here from New York,” Kapler said. “Obviously the proximity between New York and Philadelphia suggests that’s going to happen. But we really heard the power and the energy of our (crowd).
“The energy in this building was really spectacular. Our fans were out and fighting for us and that’s kind of cool, because we fight on the field.”