By Marc Auker
SAN DIEGO – Philadelphia Phillies left fielder Rhys Hoskins hit the first two home runs of his MLB career on Monday at Petco Park against the San Diego Padres. Even with Hoskins’s hot bat, the Phillies fell to the Padres 7-4.
Hoskins was called up to the Phillies roster from the Triple A Lehigh Valley IronPigs on August 10 and made his debut against the New York Mets. Before Monday’s game, Hoskins, 24, had only one hit in his first four games for Philadelphia. The fourth and seventh innings of yesterday’s matchup gave Hoskins two more hits to add to his major-league resume.
After his first home run, which was off a pitch delivered by San Diego Pitcher Travis Wood, Hoskins received some rookie hazing by his fellow teammates in the dugout. No teammate offered congratulations for the young slugger when he returned to the dugout, so Hoskins played along with the joke by giving high fives to the air. Shortly thereafter Hoskins was bombarded by celebrations from his teammates when the joke was over.
Despite the success at the plate, which included center fielder Odubel Herrera extending his hitting streak to 17 straight games, the Phillies pitching brought the rest of the squad down. Starter Jerad Eickoff let two runs score in only five innings of work, reliever Ricardo Pinto let five batters score in two innings and reliever Luis García cleaned up the remainder of the game.
The Phillies are back in action tonight against the Padres in the second game of a three-game series at 10:10 p.m. EST in San Diego.
