PHILADELPHIA — Kyle Wright became the first 20-game winner at the majors this season, and the Atlanta Braves defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 6-3 on Saturday to end a three-game losing streak.
William Contreras and rookie Michael Harris II each homed and scored three for the Braves (94-58), who moved within 1½ games to the first-seeded New York Mets in the NL East. New York lost 4-10 at the Oakland Athletics.
The Mets and Braves are playing three games in Atlanta this weekend.
Bryce Harper hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning for Philadelphia (83-68), the day started a half-game ahead of the San Diego Padres for second NL wildcard and 2½ games ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers for last-place.
Wright, 26, went 5⅓ innings and became the first Braves pitcher to win 20 games since Russ Ortiz won 21 in 2003. Wright is the seventh 20-game winner for the Braves since they moved to Atlanta in 1966, and also joined Denny Neagle and four Hall of Famers: John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, Phil Niekro and Tom Glavine.
Wright (20-5) ran for a high pitch count but didn’t concede a hit until Rhys Hoskins doubled with an out in the sixth. Harper followed up with his 18th homer, finishing the shutout bid and chasing Wright.
Philadelphia hit an unearned run in the seventh and had the potential tie on the plate with two outs when AJ defeated Minter Hoskins with a 3-2 fastball. Kenley Jansen made his 37th save with a clean ninth inning.
Atlanta generated their offense early, taking advantage of Bailey Falter’s inability to keep the ball off the center of the plate. The Braves hit six runs and 10 hits in 3⅔ innings against Falter (5-4) and handed the left-hander his first loss since July 24.
Contreras hit his 20th homer in the third. Harris added a two-run drive in the fourth, his 19th. Vaughn Grissom and Travis d’Arnaud both had two hits for Atlanta.