Rhys Hoskins' first day off of the new season turned into Scott Kingery's newest opportunity Wednesday night.
With Hoskins getting a planned rest, Kingery, who hit his first big-league home run Monday and followed with a grand slam Tuesday, got the start in left field. It was the fourth position Kingery has started at in the young season. He had previously started at third base, shortstop and in right field. One of these days, he's going to get some time at second base, his natural position. And don't rule out him serving as the designated hitter one day this weekend when the Phils travel to Tampa Bay.
Hoskins entered Wednesday tied for the NL lead (with San Francisco's Buster Posey) in batting average at .435. He was second in slugging (.719) and OPS (1.219) and tied for second in on-base percentage (.500). He also ranked fourth in the league in number of pitches seen per plate appearance at 4.52. That's an area being stressed from the front office on down to new manager Gabe Kapler and the coaching staff.
The Phillies are idle Thursday. Kapler saw that as an opportunity to get Hoskins two days off his feet before the Phils embark on a string of 19 games in 20 days. Hoskins went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts Tuesday night. It was the first time he hadn't reached base in a game this season.
"With a long stretch of a lot of games coming up, he is going to be in the lineup just about every day for the rest of the season," Kapler said. "We have to kind of pick and choose the times when he can get back-to-back blows so he can be super healthy going forward and feel like his timing is still synced-up and on-point."
Kingery, 23, played shortstop in high school and center field and second base at the University of Arizona, so versatility is not a problem for him. In fact, Kapler loves the versatility because of the options it gives him in constructing lineups.
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"One of the things that is cool about Scott is that every day he comes prepared to play any position on the field," Kapler said. "He's just that athletic and that prepared.
"I played with Ben Zobrist in Tampa and in 2009, he was really good at it. He had a lot of gloves on the bench and he would go out to various positions.
"When we have this puzzle to put together, it's incredibly valuable to have one guy that can do it all. And he can hit in several different spots in the lineup."
