PHILADELPHIA — Seemingly suddenly, the Philadelphia Phillies are gliding on rails and the Atlanta Braves have gotten off track.
Rhys Hoskins homered and drove in four runs, Aaron Nola pitched six shutout innings and the Phillies beat Atlanta 9-1 on Friday night for their third straight victory.
Alec Bohm had three hits for the Phillies (83-67), who moved into second place in the National League wild-card standings, a half-game ahead of the San Diego Padres with less than two weeks remaining in the regular season.
"Stay on the winning train," Nola said. "Every game matters right now. We have to stay focused on tomorrow. Win a game tomorrow."
Swept by the Braves last weekend in Atlanta, the Phillies were 1-0 winners Thursday in the opener of this four-game series between NL East Division rivals.
On Friday night, Eddie Rosario and Dansby Swanson doubled for the Braves, who lost for the third straight game. Atlanta hasn't lost four in a row all season, and it's just the fourth three-game slide this year for the reigning World Series champions.
"If you handle adversity, there's good things on the back end of it," Atlanta manager Brian Snitker said. "We'll keep fighting and get her going again."
The Braves (93-58) are on top of the wild-card standings, but the skid is a blow to their push for a fifth straight NL East title. Atlanta is second in the division and fell 2 1/2 games behind the New York Mets (96-56), who beat the Oakland Athletics 9-2 on Friday.
Philadelphia improved to 10-9 in September and calmed concerns brought on by a five-game slide that preceded its current winning streak. The Phillies are looking to reach the postseason for the first time since 2011, when they won a fifth straight division title.
They jumped on Jake Odorizzi (5-6) for four runs in the second inning. A pair of singles by Bohm and Brandon Marsh and a four-pitch walk to Jean Segura loaded the bases with no outs. Bryson Stott hit a sacrifice fly before Matt Vierling's RBI single, and Hoskins added a two-run double.
The Phillies tacked on four more runs in the fourth, highlighted by Hoskins' two-run shot to left for his 29th home run of the season.
"It was nice to jump on them early," Hoskins said. "A better sign is we didn't stop. We continued to add on."
Said Snitker: "The game kind of got away from us."
It was more than enough for Nola (10-12), who allowed four hits, struck out eight batters and walked three. The right-hander has 218 strikeouts and just 29 walks this season.
"He was absolutely nasty tonight," Hoskins said.
Odorizzi, making his eighth start with the Braves since he was acquired in an Aug. 1 trade with the Houston Astros, gave up eight runs and 10 hits in four innings.
"Too many pitches, too many long counts, couldn't put hitters away," Snitker said. "Just wasn't his day."
Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. sat out for the second consecutive game due to his ailing back.
The scheduled starting pitchers Saturday are Atlanta right-hander Kyle Wright (19-5, 3.18 ERA) and Philadelphia left-hander Bailey Falter (5-3, 3.68 ERA).