SAN FRANCISCO — Remember a few nights ago at Dodger Stadium when Rhys Hoskins’ hitless streak reached 33 consecutive at-bats, a career-long drought that felt almost bottomless?
It’s not a stretch to say the Phillies may be winless on the West Coast without him.
Aaron Nola gave up six runs and got only seven outs Saturday in the shortest — and arguably the worst — outing of his 154-start career. It could have gotten ugly early for the Phillies after a sloppy loss to Gabe Kapler’s Giants in the series opener Friday night.
But Hoskins slugged a two-run home run in the second inning, an RBI double in the sixth, and a three-run shot in the seventh, totaling a career-high six RBIs and powering a 13-6 victory that evened the Phillies’ record at .500 for the 14th time in 68 games, prevented them from slipping another game behind the division-leading New York Mets, and gave them a chance for both a series victory Sunday and a split of the six-game California trip.
The teams duked it out for three innings against Nola and Giants starter Alex Wood before the bullpens settled things down and the Phillies grabbed a 7-6 lead in the sixth inning with a home run from an unlikely power source. Ronald Torreyes took Giants lefty Jarlin Garcia deep to lead off the sixth inning, marking his second homer this season and the sixth of his major league career.
Once again, though, the biggest hits came from Hoskins, as they have for most of the season. For every scorching-hot streak, he seems to go through an icy-cold spell, extreme streakiness that tends to test the patience of fans who crave more consistency. But in a season in which Bryce Harper has only 18 RBIs and J.T. Realmuto has played through injuries, Hoskins has delivered many of the Phillies’ clutch moments.
To wit: After the Phillies dropped the first two games of this trip in Los Angeles, Hoskins broke out of his slump by hitting a first-inning homer against Clayton Kershaw on Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium to give Zack Wheeler a lead en route to a 2-0 victory. Hoskins homered Friday night, too, and with four in his last three games, he leads the Phillies with 15 for the season.
Hoskins’ second-inning homer off Wood proved to be well-timed, too. Nola had just allowed a two-run shot to Mike Yastrzemski to give the Giants a 2-1 lead. But Hoskins put the Phillies back on top, even if the lead was short-lived when Nola gave up three more runs in the bottom of the second.
Nola wasn’t sharp from the outset. The Giants hit almost everything that he threw. Yastrzemski’s homer came on a fastball. LaMonte Wade Jr. ripped a two-run double in the second inning on a full-count cutter. Brandon Belt led off the third inning by homering on a full-count curveball.
In lasting only 2 1/3 innings, Nola eclipsed a 2 2/3-inning start against the Atlanta Braves last Aug. 21 for the shortest start of his career.
But the bullpen shut down the Giants from there. Ranger Suarez, Connor Brogdon, Jose Alvarado, Archie Bradley, and David Hale passed the baton for 6 2/3 innings without allowing a run. Suarez, in particular, was sharp, allowing one hit and one walk in 2 2/3 innings after coming in for Nola.
Before his tiebreaking homer, Torreyes notched an RBI double in the Phillies’ three-run second inning.
Torreyes has at least one hit in 15 of 23 games since returning from the COVID-19 restricted list last month. He’s 21 for 74 (.284) with a .759 OPS during that time, more than Phillies could have asked from the primary fill-in for injured shortstop Didi Gregorius.
Matt Vierling marked his first day in the big leagues with a pinch-hit single in the sixth inning against Garcia, a stolen base, and a run scored on Hoskins’ double.
The 24-year-old outfielder said his parents were en route to the Bay Area from St. Louis and hoped to arrive in time for the game.
