The Phillies won their fifth game in a row on Wednesday night with Maikel Franco and Vince Velasquez leading the way.
Franco smacked his second grand slam of the season and Velasquez delivered a quality start in the Phillies' 7-4 win over the Miami Marlins.
The Phillies have won five in a row for the first time since April 26 to May 1 of last year when they won six straight. They will look for their sixth straight win Thursday afternoon.
The Phils are now 10-9. The Marlins are also 10-9.
Starting pitching report
Velasquez (1-2) turned in his longest and best start of the season, holding the Marlins to six hits and three runs over 6 1/3 innings. He walked two and struck out three. Velasquez threw 97 pitches and 68 were strikes. He threw a first-pitch strike to 19 of 26 batters.
Miami lefty Wei-Yin Chen (2-1) gave up seven hits and four runs over five innings. All of the runs came on Franco's grand slam.
MLB
Bullpen report
Good work by a well-rested Phillies' bullpen.
Lefty Joely Rodriguez continued to dazzle. He got two big outs in the seventh inning after Velasquez had given up a run.
Joaquin Benoit pitched a scoreless eighth inning.
Hector Neris survived a run in the ninth to close it out.
At the plate
Franco had three hits in the game, two hard-hit singles and the grand slam. He has four homers on the season and 20 RBIs, putting him firmly among the NL leaders. Franco entered the game hitting .171. He finished at .203.
Freddy Galvis smacked a solo homer in the sixth and Michael Saunders added a two-run shot into the second deck in right field in the eighth to give the Phils some breathing room. The homer was Saunders' first with the Phils.
Dee Gordon led off the game with a triple for Miami and scored the game's first run on a ground out. Martin Prado homered and Adeiny Hechavarria doubled in a run for the Marlins. Hechavarria finished with two RBIs.
Health check
Pitcher Clay Buchholz visited with teammates for the first time since having elbow surgery earlier this month. By most accounts, his season is over, but he hasn't given up hope of pitching again this season (see story).
Minor matters
Manager Pete Mackanin is getting good reports on catcher Jorge Alfaro (see story).
Up next
The series and the homestand will conclude on Thursday afternoon. Jeremy Hellickson (3-0, 1.88) will pitch for the Phillies against Marlins right-hander Edinson Volquez (0-2, 4.82).