PHILADELPHIA — Kyle Schwarber homered twice, Zack Wheeler won his third consecutive start, and the Philadelphia Phillies routed the Washington Nationals 10-1 in the opener of a five-game series on Thursday night.
Philadelphia, which scored seven runs in the third inning, has won 12 of its last 14 and improved to 11-2 under interim manager Rob Thomson.
The last-place Nationals have lost five in a row and eight of their last 10. They have dropped nine in a row to the Phillies dating to last season, their longest skid against their NL East rival since a nine-game slide in 2009.
Wheeler (6-3) allowed one run and four hits in seven innings while striking out three. The right-hander improved to 3-0 with a 1.42 ERA in three starts this month.
The Phillies blew the game open with a two-out rally in the third that started when Washington second baseman César Hernández misplayed Yairo Muñoz’s sharp grounder up the middle. Schwarber then drilled a 1-0 fastball from Patrick Corbin into the center field seats.
Things spiraled from there for Corbin (3-9), who yielded a double and a walk before Nick Castellanos and J.T. Realmuto delivered consecutive RBI singles. Both scored on Didi Gregorius’ double, and Gregorius came around for the inning’s seventh unearned run when first baseman Josh Bell sailed a throw to Corbin on Alec Bohm’s grounder.
Schwarber led off the fourth with a solo shot to right. It was his 17th career multi-homer game and his third in 2022, his first season with Philadelphia.
Corbin allowed nine runs, two earned, and eight hits in 3 1/3 innings. The struggling lefty's ERA actually dropped from 6.65 to 6.59.
Muñoz led off the eighth with a homer, his first since Sept. 4, 2020.
Bell homered in the fourth for Washington.
