Phillies: Making sense of Rhys Hoskins’ streaky start

After a slow spring training, Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Rhys Hoskins found his stroke as soon as the games started to count. He opened the new season on a six-game hitting streak, batting .417 (10-for-24) with a home run, six doubles and three multi-hit games, as the Phillies swept the Braves and took two of three from the Mets.

Hoskins then fell into a 2-for-26 funk over his next seven games, with a solo homer as his only extra-base hit in that stretch. But, he’s on a tear over his last nine games, hitting .289 (11-for-38) with six homers, one double, nine RBI and four multi-hit games.

Phillies 1B Rhys Hoskins is off to a streaky start to his 2021 season.

Hoskins followed up his two-homer, five-RBI day against the Rockies at Coors Field last Saturday with another monster game Monday night. He again went deep twice, producing the Phillies’ only runs in a 2-1 win over the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. Hoskins now leads the majors with eight home runs and owns a 145 OPS+, 45 percent above league average.

When you look at Hoskins’ overall numbers early this season, a few things stand out — both good and bad. There’s plenty of reason to be excited, as we’ve seen how good Rhys can be when he’s locked in — like right now. But for any young, streaky hitter, long-term consistency is key, and Hoskins is still searching for it.

We’ll get into all of that and try to make sense of Hoskins’ polarizing trends that fall onto both ends of the statistical spectrum.