The Phillies prevailed Monday night in St. Louis over the Cardinals by the score of 2-1. It was every bit the duel one would imagine when seeing that score. Phillies starter Zack Wheeler didn't give up a hit until the fifth inning and that was it for him in eight innings, giving up one run on just the one hit while walking three and striking out nine. Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright allowed just two runs in a complete-game loss. He struck out eight and didn't walk anyone. He might've emerged the winner if the Phillies had benched one player in particular.
Rhys Hoskins is on quite the power tear. Monday, he homered twice in a game his team won 2-1. That's pretty cool. The footage:
Talk about carrying your offense for a game. Hoskins was all the Phillies needed, thanks to Wheeler's excellent work.
As noted, Hoskins is in a zone right now with the longball. Just a week ago, he only had two homers on this young season. He's now homered six times in his last six games. In fact, his eight homers on the season now lead the majors when he wasn't even close to the top of the leaderboard a week ago.
We've seen barrages like this before from Hoskins. As a rookie in 2017, he had a nine-game stretch with eight homers and later hit six in six games. He again hit six in a six-game stretch in 2018.
With Jean Segura hurt and the likes of Alec Bohm and Andrew McCutchen struggling, J.T. Realmuto and Bryce Harper sure needed some help with the Phillies turning a 5-1 start into a 10-11 record heading into Monday. Hoskins is now stepping up his game and helped the Phillies even things up at 11-11 with the W on Monday.
