Categories: 2021 Postgame Recaps

Led by Hoskins, Phillies offense finally awakens

Final Score: Phillies 8, Mets 2

After almost a week of meaningful baseball, the Phillies offense finally broke out. The 2-3-4-5 hitters, Rhys Hoskins, Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto and Alec Bohm, combined for three doubles, three home runs and eight RBIs. Coming into this game, the Phillies only had 10 extra-base hits through five games.

Rhys Hoskins is off to a hot start. (Kyle Ross/Icon Sportswire)

Starter Aaron Nola, who dazzled in his Opening Day outing, ran his pitch count up early and was out after four innings. Luckily for the Phillies, the ace’s off night was an afterthought.

The Phillies have an off-day Thursday and will open up their first road series of the season against the Atlanta Braves. As you already know, the Phillies’ first 13 games are exclusively against the Braves and Mets. So far, Philadelphia is 5-1.

This could matter a lot in September.

Top Plays

You just knew it was coming. Hoskins, who came into the game 7-for-19 with three RBIs on the season, hit an opposite-field shot that narrowly cleared the fence in right field to give the Phillies an early 1-0 lead.

Harper followed up Hoskins’ homer with the second-hardest hit of his Phillies career, according to Todd Zolecki of MLB.com. It was a double that came off the bat at 116.3 mph. Following a Realmuto walk, Bohm obliterated an 0-1 fastball from Peterson for a three-run home run.

Nola ran into some trouble in the third. Pete Alonso brought in Brandon Nimmo, who reached base for the seventh time this series with a single of his own to put the Mets on the board. Nola was able to limit the damage by striking out Dominic Smith and Jonathan Villar. He fell behind the final four batters he faced that inning.

In the fourth, Nola found himself in a bases-loaded jam after a single, walk and a hit batsman. A called strike on a curveball that hit the outside part of the plate to Michael Conforto ended the inning.
J.T. Realmuto hit a three-run home run against the team that probably should have signed him in the offseason.

Connor Brogdon threw 1 2/3 scoreless innings in relief of Nola, striking out both James McCann and Albert Almora Jr. Thanks to Archie Bradley, who struck out Conforto to end the sixth, Brogdon’s scoreless streak, which dates back to Sept. 13, still stands.

With two outs in the top of the seventh, Villar pounced on a middle-of-the-plate fastball and drove it to the end of the right-field wall for a triple. He eventually scored on a wild pitch and cut the Mets’ deficit to six runs.
It was another great night for the Phillies bullpen. Brogdon, Bradley, Sam Coonrod and Héctor Neris combined to allow one earned run through five innings. Brogdon earned his third victory of the season.

Shibe Vintage Sports Starting Pitching Performance

Aaron Nola: 4 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 SO, 92 pitches

Good pitchers tend to have terrible outings. Nola labored through four innings against a Mets lineup that’s built on getting deep into counts and wearing pitchers down. Command is everything for the 27-year-old and he failed to throw a first-pitch strike to 12 of the 21 batters he faced. More than a third of the fastballs he threw today were out of the strike zone.

David Peterson: 4 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 5 SO, 78 pitches

The Mets preferred to split the lefties in the rotation, hence why Peterson was the third starter out of the gate for New York. He had a rough first outing against the Phillies during his rookie season (five earned runs in two innings) and this one didn’t go much better. Peterson settled in nicely from innings two through four, but left the game in the fifth after a double and bunt single from Hoskins and Harper.

Phillies Nuggets Player of the Game: Rhys Hoskins

The offense faltered down the stretch when Hoskins went down with a UCL injury last September. The 28-year-old is now fully healthy and has found success in using the whole field.

Rhys Hoskins’ 2021 spray chart. (Baseball Savant)

Hoskins matched a career-high in extra-base hits in a game at three. His last three extra-base hit game came on July 28, 2018, when Hoskins launched two home runs and a double against the Cincinnati Reds.

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