Brewers' Rhys Hoskins suffers hamstring injury; severity won't be known until Tuesday

The first hit on a 13-hit night Monday for the Milwaukee Brewers turned out to potentially be a costly one.

Rhys Hoskins – one of the pillars of the team, as manager Pat Murphy likes to say – suffered a hamstring injury on his second-inning single in what ended up being a frustrating 8-6 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates at American Family Field.

Hoskins came up lame after sending a liner to right off Mitch Keller that the first baseman initially thought he might be able to stretch into a hustle double.

Instead, he pulled up gingerly after making the turn and exited not long thereafter following a brief conversation with head athletic trainer Scott Barringer.

"Just felt a little grab in the hamstring," Hoskins said. "I've kind of learned over the years to not push soft-tissue stuff like that. I don't really have much more for you guys right now. I'll get some imaging tomorrow and we'll see where we're at."

No doubt, the Brewers are hoping for an outcome similar to that of Gary Sánchez. He strained a hamstring on April 30 running the bases and missed about a week of action but was ultimately able to avoid the injured list.

"That's a big blow," Murphy said. "We just got (Christian Yelich) back.

"I don't think there's a way to tell (the severity). We're going to get an MRI in the morning.

"Usually, hamstrings are not better in a few days."

If there's a silver lining it's that the injury occurred in Hoskins's right leg and not the left; he had his left knee rebuilt last spring and missed all of 2023 with the Philadelphia Phillies as a result.

"I think it's pretty typical to have things pop up post a pretty big surgery like that," said Hoskins, who's hitting .233 with a team-leading nine home runs.

"We'll just kind of have to see where we're at tomorrow."

If Hoskins indeed misses time with the hamstring injury, Jake Bauers is likely to see the majority of time at first base in his absence. Hoskins has 22 starts there this season and Bauers 13.

Bauers displayed his defensive versatility in the loss as he opened the game in left field, moved to first when Hoskins was hurt and then finished the game in right.

"I've been doing it long enough now that I have a pretty good feel for it," Bauers said of all the bouncing around – something he makes look easy in the flow of the game. "I have a pretty good feel for the game and the situations might come up, so I know where my mindset needs to be and what I need to think about.

"So, that's what I try to do when I'm in any given spot, is just kind of run through things before they happen and just try to be prepared as best I can."

At the plate, Bauers experienced the gamut of emotions.

He came up with a pair of runners on and two outs in both the second and sixth innings and sent shots to right field, only to see Bryan Reynolds positioned perfectly to glove them.

As Bauers neared first base after lining out the second time, he slammed his helmet down on the ground hard enough to knock his jaw protector clean off.

He came up in an even bigger situation in the eighth with the bases loaded and nobody out and that time Bauers had much better luck. Facing left-hander Josh Fleming he fell behind in the count, 1-2, worked his way to 3-2 and then slugged Fleming's seventh offering 398 feet out to right for his first career grand slam.

That time, Bauers slammed his bat down triumphantly as he watched the ball sail over the fence to pull Milwaukee to within 7-6 and still with nobody out.

"A little fired up there," said Bauers, who finished 2 for 4 and ranks fourth on the team with 21 runs batted in. "It's a big spot. I feel like I don't get to face lefties too often, so to get the opportunity and then to come through, it meant a lot to me. So, I kind of let the emotions go there.

"But I wish we could have pulled that one out somehow."

After Jackson Chourio struck out, Andruw Monsterio drew a walk. He stole second as William Contreras struck out then went to third when Yasmani Grandal's throw down bounced into center field.

But Monasterio was ultimately stranded at third when Christian Yelich struck out for the fourth time in five at-bats.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers' Rhys Hoskins suffers hamstring injury in 8-6 loss to Pirates