Phillies-Padres 5 Things: Mark Leiter, Jr. Back on the Bump as a Starter

Phillies (43-73) at Padres (52-66)
10:10 p.m. on CSN; streaming live on CSNPhilly.com and the NBC Sports App

The Phillies dropped their series opener Monday night in San Diego despite a decent outing from Jerad Eickhoff.

Fortunately, there were positive signs from their offense and Tuesday, they'll be putting one of their better arms of late on the hill.

1. Homerin' Hoskins
What was best? The silent treatment after Rhys Hoskins' first major-league blast, the fact that he added a second homer later on or his family's celebration of the two shots?

The answer is all three. After starting his career with the Phils 0 for 12, Hoskins sent two baseballs into the stands Monday night - the first at 402 feet and the second at 400 - becoming the first Phillie to hit two homers in a game this quickly since Don Money in 1969. It was only a matter of time until the 24-year-old slugged a home run, especially given that he was leading the International League with 29 before his promotion last week.

So what does Hoskins have planned for his encore performance? Well, the Phillies could really just use some consistent offense similar to the way Nick Williams has delivered since arriving from Lehigh Valley as well. 

Hoskins was slashing .284/.385/.581 at Triple A, and if he can even come somewhat close to those numbers with the big club, the Phils could see their offense begin to take another step forward.

Philadelphia Phillies

Complete coverage of the Fightin' Phils and their MLB rivals from NBC Sports Philadelphia.

Phillies release Opening Day roster, place 5 players on IL

Phillies 2024 Opening Day postponed to Friday

Tuesday, the Padres will start righty Dinelson Lamet, who has been particularly good against right-handed batters. Those on the right side are hitting just .147 against Lamet versus a .276 average from lefties.

2. Leit it up
The last couple of appearances couldn't have gone much better for Mark Leiter, Jr. Over the span of two lengthy relief appearances in the last 10 days, Leiter has tossed 9 1/3 innings, allowing just one earned run on six hits with a whopping 16 strikeouts.

This all comes after a rough month-and-a-half for the 26-year-old. Following his first major-league win at Arizona on June 23 when he went six shutout innings, Leiter watched his ERA balloon from 3.60 to 4.86 in just four outings with the Phillies and has been up and down between Philly and Lehigh Valley.

If Leiter can now carry his consistency over from the bullpen, there's a very legit chance that he could stick in the rotation for the remainder of the season. Certainly, Eickhoff and Aaron Nola aren't going anywhere but it's not clear when Vince Velazquez will be back on the hill and neither Nick Pivetta or Zach Elfin has been very good.

Leiter won't blow you away with speed but his deception and control have been incredibly good as of late and none of these Padres have ever faced him before, meaning he'll likely have the upper hand early on Tuesday night. The son of an 11-year MLB pitcher now has his chance to show that he deserves to stick around for a while.

3. Top of the shop
Of the Phils' 11 hits Monday night, seven came from the first four guys in the Phillies' order. Hoskins, Freddy Galvis and Odubel Herrera each had a pair plus one from Cesar Hernandez. Add in Nick Williams (who hit sixth) and that's not a bad group to move forward with.

The question now becomes whether the Phillies can find some top-to-bottom offense. They still rank second-to-last in the majors in runs scored (The only team behind them? San Diego) and they are third-to-last in homers (Last place? San Francisco, the team they'll play next).

It's not necessarily a matter of whether the Phils are actually winning games right now. But you're talking about guys (including Maikel Franco and Aaron Altherr) that are all 27 years old or younger and under team control for at least another season.

It seems clear that the pitching might not be on the Phillies roster just yet, but they need to hope that this group of guys can give some steady offensive production on a nightly basis. Carrying over what they were able to do Monday night into Tuesday would at least be a decent start.

4. So much for a relief
Let's just be blunt about it: Ricardo Pinto was downright bad Monday night. He needed 45 pitches to get through two innings, surrendered five runs on just four hits, gave up two walks and a solo homer to Cory Spangenberg.

On the bright side, the rest of the Phils' bullpen will be available Tuesday. Still, no one among that group has a sub-3.00 ERA and is there anyone that you actually trust?

It's hard to imagine Leiter going too deep into Tuesday's contest, meaning that someone is going to have to finish the game off and potentially hold a lead. It may not be a problem now, but you can only hope that some guys emerge going forward.

5. This and that
• Hoskins isn't the only Phillie to hit a pair of home runs in the game which he hit his first homer. Scott Rolen did it back on August 21, 1996 - but that was also his 21st major-league game.

• Leiter's best outings this year all have come against the NL West, oddly enough. His first win came at Arizona, his nine-strikeout performance was in Colorado and he's shut out both San Francisco and the Dodgers in relief appearances.

Copyright CSNPhily
Contact Us