ATLANTA — Trae Turner hit two of his team’s five home runs as the Philadelphia Phillies broke out of an offensive slump with a 13-0 rout of the Atlanta Braves that finished in the early hours of Saturday.
Nick Castellanos, Otto Kemp and Kyle Schwarber also went deep for the Phillies, who had scored just one run in three games while being swept by the Houston Astros prior to arriving in Atlanta.
The start of Friday night’s matchup at Truist Park — the opener to a three-game series between National League East Division rivals — was delayed 2 hours, 19 minutes as a thunderstorm hit shortly before the first pitch, which was scheduled for 7:15 p.m. Phillies starter Mick Abel and Braves counterpart Bryce Elder had both warmed up, but Philadelphia decided to start Tanner Banks after the delay and throw a bullpen game while the Braves still went with Elder.
Eleven of Philadelphia’s first 20 batters scored. The Phillies scored 10 runs (nine earned) on eight hits and four walks off Elder (2-5), who surrendered three home runs and exited in the third without recording an out in the inning. He had thrown 66 pitches in the game.
Banks pitched two innings before giving way to Taijuan Walker (3-5) who also went two. Alan Rangel handled the final five, allowing six hits and one walk.
Castellanos’ 445-foot home run to center field with two outs in the second inning extended the Phillies’ lead to 5-0.
Kemp and Schwarber homered in the third. Kemp’s shot was the first of his career, while Schwarber’s was his 25th of the season.
Turner went 4-for-6 with four runs scored, homerining in the second and the ninth, while Schwarber was 1-for-3 with two walks and three runs, and J.T. Realmuto was 3-for-4 with a walk.
Braves first baseman Matt Olson singled in the fifth inning to extend MLB’s longest active on-base streak to 28 games.
The 13 runs are the most allowed by the Braves in a game this season, and they were shut out in back-to-back games for the first time since March 29-30 by the host San Diego Padres during an 0-7 start. The Braves, who were coming off a split of a four-game road series with the New York Mets, have lost three in a row and five of their past eight since winning seven of nine.
The Phillies (48-34), the reigning NL East champions, entered Friday a half-game behind the Mets but moved back into first place and a half-game ahead of New York, which lost 9-1 to the NL Central’s last-place Pittsburgh Pirates.
Atlanta (37-44), which won the division six times in a row before Philadelphia ended that reign last year, is third in the NL East and 10 1/2 games out of first.
The scheduled starting pitchers for Saturday’s game are Phillies left-hander Jesús Luzardo (7-3, 4.08 ERA) and Braves right-hander Spencer Schwellenbach (6-4, 3.21).