PHILADELPHIA — Freddie Freeman homered twice and drove in four runs and Nick Markakis also hit a home run to lead the Atlanta Braves to a 7-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday night.
It was a rare power surge for the Braves, who entered last in the majors by a wide margin with just 15 homers. Philadelphia’s 31 homers entering Friday were second from the bottom in the big leagues.
The Braves hit three homers in a game for the first time this season, and have nine in their last five games.
Matt Wisler (2-3) allowed one run on five hits with seven strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings to help the Braves to just their fourth win in 15 games. Atlanta is 2-2 since firing manager Fredi Gonzalez following Monday’s defeat at Pittsburgh.
Philadelphia third baseman Maikel Franco made a pair of errors, including a costly throwing miscue in the seventh that resulted in three unearned runs. He came in with two errors on the season.
Freeman put the Braves ahead 2-1 in the third with a two-run shot off Aaron Nola (3-3). Freeman had been in a 5-for-29 skid before the at-bat. He also hit a two-run homer in the ninth, his eighth of the season, against left-hander Brett Oberholtzer for his seventh career multi-homer game.
Nola gave up five runs – two earned – and seven hits in seven innings. He entered 3-0 with a 1.32 ERA in his last five starts, all of which the Phillies won.
The Braves went up 5-1 with three runs in the seventh.
Franco overthrew first base to allow leadoff hitter Mallex Smith to reach second on the two-base error, and Smith went to second on Ender Inciarte’s groundout to second. Gordon Beckham singled to short over the drawn-in infield to plate Smith before Markakis broke the inning open with his first homer of the season, an opposite-field, two-run shot.
The surprising Phillies, who are in rebuild mode after losing 99 games last season, fell two games back of the Nationals for first place in the NL East. They dropped to 13-9 against the NL East. Philadelphia entered with the sixth-best winning percentage in baseball at .585, largely due to its success in close games. The Phillies are 14-3 in one-run games and have won each of their last 15 games by three runs or fewer.
Philadelphia scored its run on Ryan Howard’s first-inning groundout.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Braves: SS Erick Aybar returned to the lineup after sitting out Thursday’s game at Pittsburgh because he swallowed a chicken bone in a pregame meal that required hospitalization and sedation for removal. Aybar went 1 for 3 with a walk.
Phillies: Howard was struck in the left thigh by a foul ball off the bat of Franco in the sixth inning. Howard shook it off and both Howard and Franco got a laugh when Howard pointed to the outfield, ostensibly telling Franco to hit it out there. … CF Odubel Herrera returned to the lineup after sitting out Wednesday’s game with a sore finger. Herrera went 0 for 3.
UP NEXT
Braves RHP Williams Perez (1-1, 4.78) opposes Phillies LHP Adam Morgan (1-1, 6.41) on Saturday.
