Hoskins 'better every day,' eyes road return
PHILADELPHIA -- Rhys Hoskins might say that hitting home runs is more fun than cheering for them, but he certainly had some fun reactions to his teammates’ homers last weekend in a sweep against the Mets.
“We’ve got such a cool view of these homers,” he said Saturday at Citizens Bank Park. “A lot of them have been in huge, huge situations. The atmosphere of [last] weekend was just incredible. Who doesn't love homers?”
But, let’s be honest …
“I’m bored,” he said.
Hoskins has been on the 10-day injured list since Tuesday (retroactive to Aug. 7) with a strained left groin. He originally injured himself diving for a ball on July 29 against Washington. He missed three games, then played in a four-game series in Washington before needing to pull back because the groin continued to bother him.
Hoskins had a cortisone injection in the groin on Friday “to kind of help speed the process up,” he said. But he believes the end is near. He will travel with the team to Arizona following Sunday’s series finale against the Reds, so there is a chance he is activated on the six-game road trip against the D-backs and Padres, which begins Tuesday in Phoenix.
“Better every day,” Hoskins said. “Definitely less sore each day, which is always good. Getting to do more and more just from the rehab side every day. Shooting for sometime next week. It's still kind of one of those things where you're waking up, seeing how it responded the previous day.
“Typically, I think with [the cortisone shot], you're supposed to take a day at least to let it set in. So, we did that yesterday. If it continues to set in and it feels better and better, it's kind of just a tolerance thing at that point. I did more today than I did yesterday. I'll probably do more tomorrow than I did today. See how it goes.”
Hoskins hopes that whenever he returns, he will not have to worry about re-injuring himself.
“The biggest thing those couple days in Washington was just running,” he said. “Swinging the bat was fine. Quick little movements in the field were pretty good. It was just trying to get to a full sprint. Luckily, it's not a huge part of my game, the speed aspect. But you've still got to be able to run second to home, first to home, stuff like that. I'm hoping it's going to continue to kind of progress as I get back into it and get stronger.”
Hoskins is batting .244 with 24 homers, 68 RBIs and an .841 OPS this season. He was hitting .329 with a 1.195 OPS in 25 games since July 3 before going on the IL.
“Now we're in the second, third week of August and here we are in first place,” he said. “These games are getting more and more intense. Shoot, man, this is why we play the game. It's tough.”