ATLANTA -- The Phillies spent three days in Houston this week waiting on an offense that never showed up.
So certainly they didn't mind waiting just a few extra hours for their biggest offensive showing of the season on Friday night.
Following a two-hour, 19-minute rain delay that seemingly caught everyone by surprise, the Phillies' bats erupted in a 13-0 win over the Braves in the series opener at Truist Park. The 13 runs were a season high, as were their five home runs, which included the first of Otto Kemp's career.
“It was a cool moment,” Kemp said. “Something I'll remember forever. It was awesome.”
Kemp led the International League with 14 home runs at the time of his callup, but despite some close calls over the past few weeks, he was still waiting for No. 1 in the big leagues.
"It felt like a long time coming,” Kemp said. “I just knew it was a matter of time before it happened."
The same can be said for the Phillies’ offense as a whole. After managing only one run in their three-game sweep at the hands of the Astros, the Phils pounced on the Braves early. Along with Kemp’s first homer, Kyle Schwarber hit his 25th of the season and Trea Turner added two of his own.
All of that came after a lengthy delay that came on abruptly just moments before the scheduled 7:15 p.m. first pitch. Both expected starting pitchers -- Mick Abel for the Phils and Bryce Elder for the Braves -- had already completed their warmups and Atlanta was poised to take the field before the grounds crew suddenly rushed out with the tarp.
A series of unexpected pop-up storms proceeded to pass over the stadium, dropping torrential downpours that eventually gave way to a steady rain for most of the night.
By the time the game actually started, it was 9:34 p.m. ET -- more than two hours since Abel had thrown a warm-up pitch. Thus, the Phillies chose to play it safe with their 23-year-old prospect, opting to roll with a bullpen game instead of asking Abel to ramp it back up again.
The Braves, meanwhile, stuck with Elder. Given the way his night went, the Phillies appeared to make the right call.
Elder took the mound after going through a full warmup for the second time and promptly served up a double to Turner, who missed a leadoff home run by about a foot. That would prove to be a sign of things to come.
Turner followed one inning later with a two-run homer on a nearly identical hit -- except this one traveled three feet farther, per Statcast. Nick Castellanos added a three-run homer later in the frame to extend the Phillies' lead to 5-0.
After back-to-back singles to start the third inning, Kemp teed off for his first career home run to make it an 8-0 game. A few batters later, Schwarber welcomed reliever Michael Petersen to the game with a 439-foot blast that left the bat at 111.6 mph.
Put it all together and it marked the first time the Phillies had at least four homers and 11 runs through the first three innings of a game since May 17, 1979 -- and yes, that was the Phillies' legendary 23-22 win over the Cubs at Wrigley Field.
“To add on in the second and third innings was really important,” Turner said. “Just to keep that momentum going. Kind of put them away early and get a good win.”
While Elder would ultimately allow a career-high 10 runs (nine earned) over just two-plus innings, the Phillies needed only three relievers -- Tanner Banks, Taijuan Walker and Alan Rangel -- to navigate nine scoreless innings. Rangel pitched the final five frames to earn his first career save in just his second big league appearance.
“Incredible; he was great,” manager Rob Thomson said. “He did exactly what we needed him to do.”
Unlike the three pitching gems the Phils received in Houston, the offense made sure this one did not go to waste.
“We weren't very good the last three days,” Turner said. “But to score early, get a good win and put that behind us is nice to not let that kind of snowball on us.”