SEATTLE (AP) — While a pair of rainouts threw the Philadelphia 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 Philadelphia’s offense with the second grand slam of his career and the Phillies beat the Seattle Mariners 4-2 on Wednesday.
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 New York 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 (4-1) just inside the foul pole down the left field line with one out in the fourth inning. Gilbert, who started the day second in the AL in ERA at 1.36, retired nine of the first 10 batters including five strikeouts to start the game.
But Gilbert ran into trouble in the fourth with a single by Alec Bohn and walks to Bryce Harper and Jean Segura setting up Hoskins for his fifth homer of the season. Hoskins’ previous seven homers dating back to last season had all been solo shots.
Gilbert had…
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