Alec Bohm leads an insane offensive afternoon for the Phillies

The Phillies' offense went absolutely nuts on Saturday afternoon, nearly batting around three innings in a row in a 19-4 win over the Nationals.

They scored six runs in the third inning, four in the fourth and eight more in the fifth.

The Phils sent 29 men to the plate in those three innings with a grand slam, three two-run homers, four doubles, seven singles, four walks and a sacrifice fly.

They scored their first seven runs off of lefty Mackenzie Gore, the Nationals' top pitcher.

In all three of the huge innings, the Phillies rallied, it looked like the threat had ended, then they rallied again with two outs. Half of the 18 runs scored across those three frames came with two outs.

"I think it's just a product of us not giving away any pitches, us being locked in on every part of our at-bat whether we're ahead in the count or behind in the count," Nick Castellanos said. "I think we're also doing a great job of running bases."

Alec Bohm hit an RBI single in the second, a two-run homer in the third, a two-run homer in the fourth and another RBI single in the fifth. He's driven in 54 runs in 69 games and is on pace for 108.

Best game of his career?

"It's probably up there," Bohm said. "Days like today where everybody's swinging the bats well and there's a lot of smiles in the dugout are always fun."

Bohm put on about 10 pounds of muscle over the offseason, hit for power in spring training, homered on opening day and had three jacks with 11 RBI in the Phillies' first 10 games.

Then he hit just four in 239 plate appearances before Saturday.

"It's always been there, it's in there, but it's kind of the way baseball goes, it's up, it's down, it's just about trying to stay even," Bohm said. "I think (my power potential) is yet to be seen. I'm not going to put a ceiling on it or a floor or anything like that. When things are right, any time I go up there, there's a chance I could hit one. But I feel like I've found throughout the course of playing that trying to go up there and hit a home run just doesn't work for me."

Castellanos had three hits, including a two-run homer in the fourth and an RBI double in the fifth. He's batting .314 with an .863 OPS. Could he be headed to the All-Star Game? We'll find out Sunday at 5:30 p.m. when pitchers and reserves are announced.

"Am I thinking about it a lot? Not terribly, to be honest with you," Castellanos said. "Would it mean a lot? Sure, it's a tremendous honor to represent any city, to get selected to the All-Star Game. But Liam (his son) also has a sleepaway tournament that day in Viera, Florida. So whatever ends up happening, whether I'm in Seattle or watching him play, I'm going to enjoy it."

Kyle Schwarber walked to begin the third inning and singled to open the fifth, starting both onslaughts. His grand slam capped off the fifth.

Trea Turner reached base with nobody out in the third, fourth and fifth innings and scored all three times.

Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto each drove in two runs and scored twice.

Josh Harrison, in a spot start at second base for Bryson Stott, was hit by a pitch, drove in a run with a sac fly, doubled and walked.

Every Phillies starter except Realmuto reached base multiple times.

Harper's aggressive baserunning set a tone early. He doubled to the opposite field to begin the bottom of the second — his first extra-base hit in 66 plate appearances — and advanced to third base on a shallow flyout to center by Realmuto. It enabled him to score on a single from Bohm. Harper also sped around the sacks to reach third base on Realmuto's third-inning single, setting up the Harrison sac fly.

Zack Wheeler (7-4, 4.03 ERA) allowed four runs over five innings to pick up the win. He mostly dominated the Nationals over the first four innings before allowing five hits and three runs in the fifth with the game well in hand.

The Phillies are 44-38, on pace for the same 87-75 record they finished with a year ago.

Their team OPS rose 10 points in one day, which is not easy to do when you're more than 3,100 plate appearances into a season.

"I think it was a great bounce-back win from our game yesterday," Castellanos said. "The more guys we have on base, the more pressure pitches they have to make, the more we took advantage of the situation."

The Phils look to make it eight out of nine series wins on Sunday afternoon when Ranger Suarez opposes right-hander Trevor Williams (4-4, 4.28). Suarez had a 1.08 ERA in June and the Phillies won four of his five starts.