PHILADELPHIA _ Rhys Hoskins of the Phillies was showered Monday night with boos after he popped up in the ninth inning with the bases loaded. Hoskins has been the team's most productive hitter since reaching the majors but is stuck in a slump. And the booing seemed to be the loudest he had ever heard.
"That, I could care less about that," Hoskins said. "We won the game. Yeah, we won the game."
Hoskins might not have cared about the boos, but teammate Sean Rodriguez, who hit a walk-off homer two innings later, certainly did.
"The guy has 60-plus homers in three years and you're booing him. Explain that to me. That's entitled fans," Rodriguez said. "I don't know if it's them feeling like they're owed something. There's nobody in here that doesn't want to win. That's what sucks. When we hear that, we've learned to try and take that and use it like we should. But if I sat and just buried you every single day verbally, is that helping?"
But was it shocking to hear Hoskins, a fan favorite, get booed?
"It's not the first time. They did it a few times," Rodriguez said. "They booed Bryce. The sad thing is that that guy is probably going to be a Hall of Famer and you have fans feeling like booing is going to make him want to play harder. No. He's playing hard because that's who he is. That's who he's always been."
Rodriguez' home run was his second hit this month in 21 at-bats. His job _ a pinch hitter used late in the games usually against powerful relievers _ is challenging. The league average for pinch hitting is just .226. And Rodriguez brought that up after his homer on Monday night.
And then he brought up the fans, who he said he's heard plenty from this season.
"Well, think about it. Who's looking bad and feeling entitled when you hear stuff like that. I'm asking you," Rodriguez said. "I'm not the one booing. I'm not the one screaming. I'm not the one saying pretty disgusting things at times. That seems pretty entitled. You're just making yourself look pretty bad as an individual, as a person, as a fan."
"You're making guys not want to sit there and say 'Hey, they're going to support you. They're going to want you to do this.' That's tough. There's still a lot of good fans, though. Those are the ones I hear and pay attention to. The few that might be behind home plate and say 'Hey Sean, keep doing your thing. Don't worry about it. Things will come around. Hey Rhys. Hey so and so. Hey Bryce.' Through the thick and thin, that's when you get to show your true colors."
"When you act a certain way towards somebody because you don't feel like they're doing what they need to do, just look at life in general. We want to win. There's nobody in here that doesn't want to win. You just have to basically sit there and say 'Hey, let's see if I can help him get him out of what he's doing. Hey see if I can be encouraging enough to help an individual.' That's the harder thing to do. The easy thing to do is just scream 'boo.' Let me think of something to say that might actually be encouraging. No, it takes effort."
