PHILADELPHIA _ A slice of life for a rising baseball star: One night, you ring the bell before a Sixers playoff game; the next, you win a game for the Phillies with a ding-dong.
It's good to be Rhys Hoskins.
A half-inning after Phillies manager Gabe Kapler got burned by a pitching decision, Hoskins lined a three-run home run into the left-field seats to spark a 4-2 victory in the opener of a three-game series against the rival Washington Nationals. It marked the Phillies' sixth win in eight games and gave them a five-game lead on the fourth-place Nationals.
Hoskins' homer also came after Phillies manager Gabe Kapler got burned on a questionable pitching decision. Kapler lifted starter Jerad Eickhoff for a pinch hitter with the game tied at 1 in the bottom of the fifth inning even though Eickhoff had thrown only 87 pitches.
The move blew up on Kapler in the sixth when reliever Seranthony Dominguez gave up a go-ahead solo homer to Kurt Suzuki on a 97-mph fastball. The Nationals hadn't seen a pitch harder than 91 mph from Eickhoff, who retired six of the final seven batters that he faced.
But Nationals manager Dave Martinez saw Kapler's early hook and raised him one of his own, yanking starter Jeremy Hellickson after only 79 pitches and a one-out infield single by Segura in the sixth inning. With lefty-hitting Bryce Harper due up for the Phillies, Martinez countered with lefty reliever Dan Jennings.
The move blew up spectacularly. Jennings walked Harper, then gave up Hoskins' line-drive three-run shot in the latest blow to the Nationals' bullpen, which entered with the highest ERA (5.87) in the National League.
Hoskins, meanwhile, reached 10 home runs in 31 games, faster than any Phillies player since 2009 when Chase Utley got to 10 in 30 games and Raul Ibanez did it in 31 games. Hoskins has hit three homers in his last seven games, as the Phillies have gone 5-2 on a homestand that continues through the weekend.
The Phillies' bullpen held the Nationals off the board from there. Lefty reliever Adam Morgan tossed a scoreless seventh inning and set a team record with 16 consecutive shutout innings to open a season. Pat Neshek and Hector Neris followed in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively.
Facing the Phillies for the second time in a three-week span, Hellickson continued to flummox his former team.
Hellickson gave up a solo home run to Jean Segura in the first inning, but retired 15 of the next 18 batters. He overcame a two-out single by Hoskins in the first inning and a leadoff double by Harper in the fourth and racked up a season-high nine strikeouts. Including his six scoreless innings in April 10, Hellickson has held the Phillies to two runs on seven hits in his last 11 1/3 innings against them.
Eickhoff was nearly as tough. He gave up a run in the third inning on a leadoff walk to Hellickson and a two-out RBI single by Howie Kendrick. Otherwise, he gave up only three hits and racked up seven strikeouts in five innings, his second stellar start in a row.
