Returning to the ballpark he frequented as a kid, Hoskins leads Guards to victory
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WEST SACRAMENTO -- As a youngster, Rhys Hoskins frequented Sutter Health Ballpark. The Sacramento native commonly attended Triple-A games at the ballpark with his dad and friends, often sitting on the lawn beyond the right-field fence in hopes of catching a home run ball.
You can understand, then, what Hoskins was feeling on Friday afternoon, before the Guardians’ series opener against the A’s.
“My 10-year-old self is screaming right now,” Hoskins said pregame.
Hoskins’ homecoming is off to a tremendous start. The 33-year-old sparked a pair of rallies on Friday in the Guardians’ 8-5 win over the A’s, in which he finished 2-for-4 with one double, one home run, one walk and three RBIs.
The Guardians trailed 4-2 when Hoskins stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and one out in the fifth inning. He got a 1-0 sinker from A’s starter J.T. Ginn and crushed a game-tying two-run double that one-hopped the right-field wall. It sparked a three-run inning in which Cleveland took a 5-4 lead.
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Hoskins wasn’t done. In the seventh, he crushed a solo home run off A’s right-hander Justin Sterner, which traveled a Statcast-projected 376 feet and landed inside the left-field foul pole.
Hoskins entered Friday with a .203/.353/.319 slash line in 24 games, with one home run and six RBIs. His performance in the series opener is exactly what the Guardians envisioned when they added him in the middle of Spring Training to bolster the middle of their lineup.
The Guardians tallied 11 hits. Steven Kwan went 2-for-4 with one walk, while Chase DeLauter went 4-for-4 with one walk and two RBIs. DeLauter extended his on-base streak to a career-high 10 games. Bo Naylor added an RBI double in a 2-for-4 night, while Travis Bazzana went 0-for-3 with two walks.