If you missed it last night, the Phillies lost 5-4 after Rhys Hoskins committed a ninth-inning error on a would-be double play, allowing Adam Frazier score the go-ahead run.

“Routine” would be a good word to describe this play. It really doesn’t get more routine than this, with Jean Segura scooting over to second base and making the corresponding throw to first. Hoskins simply dropped the ball, after the jump:

Eek!

“Just missed it. Clanked it,” said Hoskins after the game.

Shit, of course, does happen, though it feels like every Rhys Hoskins error seems more costly than the mistakes committed by his teammates. Maybe it’s just randomly unfortunate with the timing of these errors, when they do pop up.

You’d be willing to live with the occasional muff if Rhys wasn’t struggling at the plate, where he’s put up the following numbers since the All-Star break:

  • .166 batting average
  • .661 OPS
  • 24 hits
  • 14 RBI
  • 184 plate appearances

Those numbers are way down from what he did in the first half of the year, when he hit .263 with a .931 OPS. He smashed 20 home runs pre-All Star Break and has just five dingers since.

Naturally, you question if Rhys could use a break, a night or two off to get himself straightened out. That’s something he is definitely not interested in:

And I don’t blame him for answering the question that way. Of course he wants to fight through the slump and reclaim his pre-break form. I think 99 out of 100 guys will probably tell you the same thing.

It’s on Gabe Kapler, then, to figure out what to do with Hoskins. He’s moved him around in the lineup and tinkered incessantly in that regard, so I don’t know what else there is to do in that department. Whatever the case, the Phils could really use Hoskins’ bat, because September approaches and the club is two games out of the final wild card spot. Every time they get within striking distance, they fail to make up more ground.