The Phillies seem to have finally unlocked the secrets to their own ballpark.

After struggling offensively at Citizens Bank Park for most of the season, they have been hitting the ball much better on their current six-game homestand. That included Monday’s 8-2 victory over the Braves on Independence Day. The Phillies pounded out eight extra-base hits, including home runs from Maikel Franco and Odubel Herrera, as Jerad Eickhoff pitched superbly through 7 2/3 innings.
Maikel Franco sends a home run to left center field, breaking the game open for the Phillies and making it 7-1
Braves shortstop Erick Aybar hit a solo homer in the first inning to give the Braves the lead, but they got little going after that.
The Phillies scored a season-high seven runs in the second inning. It included six extra-base hits, with doubles from Cameron Rupp, Tommy Joseph and Peter Bourjos, a triple from Cesar Hernandez and home runs from Herrera and Franco. Franco’s homer in the second travelled a projected 448 feet, making it the Phillies’ longest of the season. He swung hard and missed on the first pitch in the at-bat, before calming down and crushing the second.
“On that first swing, yes,” Franco said with a laugh, acknowledging he wanted to go deep. “But on the second one, I just tried to see the ball and put good contact on it.”
The Phillies teed off on Joel De La Cruz, who was making his second Major League start. After working around a leadoff double by Herrera in the first, there was no holding the Phillies back in the second. Five runs had crossed the plate by the time De La Cruz recorded the second out of the inning. To his credit, De La Cruz limited the damage — albeit a lot of it — to that frame. He got the third out on the 10th batter of the inning, the first in a stretch of retiring 13 of the final 15 Phillies he faced.
“Coming into the dugout after the second inning, I just told myself, ‘Man, I was missing some pitches out there,’ so I kind of recollected myself to go out there and just keep the ball low, get really aggressive with these at-bats and make the adjustments that you had to,” De La Cruz said through an interpreter. “I think that helped me out the remainder of the game, with obviously more of the results I was looking for.”
Phillies right-hander Eickhoff has been cruising since the end of May. He is 4-2 with a 2.25 ERA in his last seven starts, including this dominant effort against the Braves. He allowed two runs on five hits with three walks and eight strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings. It marked the first time a Phillies starter pitched more than seven innings since Vince Velasquez’s complete game on April 14 against the Padres.
“I feel good,” Eickhoff said. “I feel good mechanically and mentally. I’m just going to try and stay right where I want — not too high and not too low. I’m going to try and help this game any way I can.”
Things looked a lot different before the Phillies’ second inning. The Braves got off to a quick 1-0 lead when Aybar put the first pitch he saw from Eickhoff over the right-field wall. It was Aybar’s first blast of the season and his first as a Brave. The last home run for Aybar came on Oct. 3, 2015, as a member of the Angels.
Since returning from the DL on June 12, Aybar has hit .319 (22-for-69) and posted an .821 OPS.
De La Cruz became the first pitcher to allow eight or more extra-base hits to the Phillies in a game since the Cardinals’ Dizzy Dean gave up eight in 14 innings on May 26, 1933, at Sportsman’s Park. It was the first time the Phillies had eight extra-base hits in a game since July 26, 2015, against the Cubs. It was also the first time the Phillies began a game with eight consecutive extra-base hits since June 5, 1988, against the Cardinals.
Eickhoff has 18 quality starts in his first 25 career outings, which ties Hall of Fame right-hander Robin Roberts and right-hander Art Mahaffey for the most quality starts through the first 25 starts of a Phillies’ career (since 1913). The last two pitchers to have at least 18 in their first 25 starts were the Mets’ Jacob deGrom (20) and the Yankees’ Masahiro Tanaka (19).
Mike Foltynewicz (2-2, 3.72 ERA) gets to make a proper return from the disabled list in the second of the three-game series at 6:05 p.m. CT on Tuesday against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast beginning at 6 PM on the Braves Radio Network.

The Nashville Sounds lost their season-high fifth straight game in an 11 inning pitcher’s duel 2-1 against the Memphis Redbirds Monday night from AutoZone Park.

Alberto Rosario hit the game winning RBI single to right field to score Dean Anna to give the Redbirds the 2-1 series opening win. Carlos Peguero led off the inning with an infield single. Sounds reliever Eduard Santos then lost his command and issued a walk to Dean Anna to have runners on first and second with no outs. Breyvic Valeria then got the free pass from Santos to load the bases for Matt Williams. Williams grounded out to Renato Nunez who threw out Peguero at home to extend the game. Rosario then stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and hit the game-winner over Matt Olson’s head to give the Redbirds the 2-1 win.

The game was sent into extra innings when Tucker Healy blew his third save of the season in the bottom of the ninth inning. After striking out Randal Grichuk to start the frame, Healy then walked David Washington to put the tying run on base. Healy then struck out Peguero, and the Redbirds were down to their final out. Anna then singled to right to put the tying run at second. Healy then had the Redbirds down to their final strike until Valeria singled home Washington to tie the game and send it to extras.

Max Muncy played hero in the bottom of the 10th inning as he threw out Rosario at home on Grichuk’s single to left.

The Sounds plated the game’s first run in the bottom of the fifth inning off of back-to-back doubles from Chad Pinder and Matt Olson to give the Sounds a 1-0 lead.

The Sounds lost despite an excellent performance from starter Chris Smith. Smith retired the first 11 batters he faced before giving up his first hit of the evening to Redbirds center fielder Randal Grichuk on a two-out double in the fourth inning.

Smith’s night was done after seven scoreless innings in his eighth quality start of the season. The veteran right-hander struck out nine and gave up just three hits in the no decision.

Smith gave way to J.B. Wendelken who pitched a scoreless eighth inning, striking out one and he walked a batter.

The Sounds will look to rebound in game two of the three-game series Tuesday night at AutoZone Park. Left-hander Dillon Overton (8-4, 3.01) will start for the Sounds in his first game back from the Athletics and the Redbirds will counter with right-hander Deck McGuire (6-6, 4.15). First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

J.T. Realmuto homered and drove in two runs, Adam Conley pitched six strong innings and the Miami Marlins beat the Atlanta Braves 5-2 on Sunday night in a game played on a U.S. Army post.

Christian Yelich also finished with two RBIs. He and Realmuto had run-scoring singles during a two-run fifth.

Martin Prado added an RBI single in the seventh to help the wild card-contending Marlins earn a split of the four-game series and win the first regular-season game — in any sport — held at an active military installation.

This game was played at a ballpark built from scratch in less than four months at the sprawling Army post that’s home to 55,000 service members, including the famed paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division.

Conley (5-5) allowed four hits in the Marlins’ best outing by a starter in a week. In Miami’s previous five games, each starter allowed at least four earned runs and none finished the sixth.

Matt Wisler (3-8) had six strikeouts for the Braves, giving him 15 in his last two starts, but he allowed three earned runs in six-plus innings.

Realmuto led off the ninth with a towering homer to center field off reliever Tyrell Jenkins to put the Marlins up 5-0.

They pulled within 1½ games of the NL’s second wild card and improved to 4-8 against the last-place Braves — a mark that’s still their worst against an NL East opponent. Two of those wins belong to Conley, who threw eight scoreless innings in a 3-0 win over Atlanta on June 22 in Miami.

The Braves scored two runs in the ninth off A.J. Ramos on Erick Aybar’s RBI double and A.J. Pierzynski’s sacrifice fly before Ramos struck out Jace Peterson to end it.

In a joint effort from Major League Baseball and the players’ association, an overgrown golf course was cleared out and transformed into a major league-caliber field surrounded by temporary stands that were packed by 12,582 service members — most of whom cheered and chopped for the local favorite Braves.

Looking rather comfortable in such a setting, Wisler breezed through the first four innings before running into trouble in the fifth.

Adeiny Hechavarria led off with a triple off the fence in center, then scored two batters later on Realmuto’s single to right that fell in front of a diving Nick Markakis. Prado then singled to center and Yelich followed with his RBI single to right that scored Realmuto.

Prado made it 3-0 with his RBI single in the seventh and Yelich added a run-scoring sacrifice fly off Jenkins an inning later.

RHP Joel De La Cruz (0-1, 4.50 ERA) makes his second career start in the first game of a three-game series at Philadelphia. He gave up three runs in seven innings of a 3-0 loss to Cleveland on June 29.  Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast of that game beginning at 3 PM as part of the Atlanta Braves Radio Network.

The largest crowd in First Tennessee Park history of 11,759 fans watched the Oklahoma City Dodgers finish off a four-game sweep of the Nashville Sounds with a 4-1 win Sunday night.

It’s the first time the Sounds (47-37) have been swept in nearly a calendar year. The last time was August 15-18 of last season when the El Paso Chihuahuas came into First Tennessee Park and won four straight.

Both starters were locked in early and didn’t allow any runs. Zach Neal, working in his first game since being optioned from Oakland, worked four shutout innings after being used primarily out of the bullpen by the A’s.

Ross Striping, who is making his way back from injury for the Dodgers, went 3 2/3 scoreless innings of his own. Neither starter factored into the decision.

The game changed when Neal was lifted after four. Oklahoma City quickly put a pair of runs on the board in the fifth against Chris Jensen. Cole Figeroa plated the first run with a triple to the gap in right-center. With Figeroa leading off third, Jensen balked to force him in with the second run of the game.

Nashville got one run back in the sixth but could have had more if not for a running catch by Andrew Toles in right field.

Carson Blair led off the frame with a walk and moved to second on Jaycob Brugman’s single to right-center. After Arismendy Alcantara moved both runners up 90 feet with a sacrifice bunt, Oklahoma City turned to reliever Sam LeCure.

Max Muncy sent a line drive to the gap in right-center that Toles ran down to save a run and extra bases. The sacrifice fly scored Blair to trim the deficit in half at 2-1.

It stayed 2-1 until the Dodgers (46-36) got two big insurance runs in the top of the ninth. Corey Brown drilled the right field foul pole for a solo home run, and Micah Johnson drove in the other run with a double to left-center.

Jacob Rhame came in for the ninth and retired the Sounds in order to notch his fifth save of the season.

Carlos Frias earned the win in relief and Jensen was tagged with the loss.

The Sounds head to Memphis for a three-game series set to begin Monday night. Right-hander Chris Smith (5-6, 4.18) starts for Nashville against right-hander Alex Reyes (2-1, 4.93) for Memphis. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m.