NEW YORK _ Behold, the power of Rhys Hoskins.
It had gone missing for a while. About a month, actually. By his admission, Hoskins hasn't seen the ball very well lately, the prime reason for his .172 batting average since Aug. 4 and the 0-for-14 drought that he dragged to the plate in the eighth inning Friday night against the New York Mets.
But Hoskins' power is never far away. When he's at his mightiest, he's capable of carrying the Phillies' fickle offense, and over the next three weeks, as long as the National League East crown remains within reach, the Phillies need him to be closer to mighty.
This was the perfect time, then, for Hoskins to step forward. Minutes earlier, Aaron Nola had given up the game-tying home run to Mets rookie Dominic Smith, and now, down two strikes against hard-throwing reliever Tyler Bashlor, Hoskins got a 97-mph fastball.
And he didn't miss.
Hoskins slammed a homer into the left-field bleachers to bail out Nola and give the Phillies a 4-3 victory in the opener of a three-game series. With Mets co-aces Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom set to start the next two games, it's fair to say the Phillies needed this one.
With fellow Cy Young Award hopeful deGrom watching from the Mets' dugout in advance of his start Sunday, Nola was dominant for a long stretch in the middle of the game. Ultimately, though, he was human.
Nola gave up a leadoff home run to Jay Bruce to open the scoring in the second inning. And after the Phillies grabbed a 2-1 lead on Carlos Santana's two-run homer in the third, Nola answered in the bottom of the inning by walking Brandon Nimmo and allowing an RBI double on a check swing by Jeff McNeil that looked more like one of the PGA wedge shots this weekend at Aronimink.
From there, Nola was mostly nasty. Leaning heavily on his bending curveball, he retired 12 batters in a row after McNeil's double. He got stronger through the middle innings and appeared to be set up for another victory after Odubel Herrera doubled and scored on Asdrubal Cabrera's RBI single in the sixth inning.
But Smith tied the game with a one-out shot in the seventh. It marked the fifth homer Nola allowed in 122/3 innings over his last two starts. He gave up only eight homers in 176 innings through his first 27 starts.
Hoskins took Nola off the hook, though. A few days ago, after watching Hoskins strike out three times in a game in Miami, manager Gabe Kapler expressed his faith that the slugging left fielder would get hot again, that he could carry the Phillies for the final weeks of the season.
This was the perfect time to get started.
