By Brandon Apter, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Through the first month of the minor league season, there have been a couple of hot hitters at Triple-A Lehigh Valley, most notably Rhys Hoskins and Jorge Alfaro, hitting .350 and .351, respectively. On the other side of things, slugging outfielder Dylan Cozens has struggled to start the season, hitting .165 and .139, respectively. On Tuesday night, the Ironpigs used extra-base power to beat Scranton Wilkes-Barre 11-7. Hoskins and Alfaro continued their strong offensive performances, and Dylan Cozens had an impressive night at the plate, hopefully putting him back on track moving forward.
Cozens singled in his first two at bats, snapping an 0-for-10 streak at the plate, scoring on a Rhys Hoskins homer on his second single to bring the Ironpigs back within one, 6-5, in the fifth inning. With one out in the bottom of the sixth, Cozens tripled to right field, plating Jorge Alfaro to tie the game at seven a piece. Cozens hit again in the bottom of the seventh, driving in Cam Perkins on a sac fly, extending Lehigh Valley’s lead to 11-7. Cozens raised his batting average from .136 to .165 and hopefully he carries this momentum into the coming games. Strikeouts have been an even bigger issue for the 6-foot-6 outfielder this season, striking out in 47 percent of his at-bats thus far. Despite his struggles though, Cozens is tied for the International League lead with 17 RBIs.
Rhys Hoskins kept rolling at the plate on Tuesday, hitting his International League leading seventh home run of the season, a three-run shot to raise his average 12 points to .350 on the season.
A second inning walk put him in the Lehigh Valley record books, reaching base in 23 straight games. He finished the night 2-for-3 at the plate with a home run, three runs scored, three RBIs and two walks. In addition to having the most homers in the league, Hoskins leads the IL in slugging percentage (.675) and total bases (54) while ranking second in on-base percentage (.447).
Jorge Alfaro raised his averaged from .333 to .351 last night, going 3-for-5 with two runs scored and a walk. His average is good for second best in the IL, right in front of teammate Rhys Hoskins. Over his last 10 games, he’s hitting .341 with two homers and eight RBIs.
Outfielder Cam Perkins is hitting .353 (12-for-34) over his last 10 games. On Tuesday night, he went 3-for-4 with a home run, two runs scored, two RBIs, a walk and a strikeout.
On a not so good note, Mark Appel got the start for Lehigh Valley and continued his string of poor outings. He lasted just four innings, giving up six runs on 11 hits, raising his ERA to 7.48 this season. J.P. Crawford’s average dropped to .139 on Tuesday as the Phillies top prospect went 0-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Prior to last night, though, Crawford had hits in the last five games, so that’s a good sign.
