ATLANTA — Monday night’s 7-1 win was an important one. The Phillies have just 12 games left to play, and 10 of those are against teams with a record below .500. They sit at 3 ½ games ahead of the Diamondbacks in first place in the National League Wild Card race. It’s a good position to be in, but it would be better if they could come out of Atlanta relatively unscathed.

And it wasn’t a certainty that they would. The Phillies dropped three of four to the Braves last week, in their 2-5 homestand. But on Monday, they played dominant baseball against a team with 96 wins.

They hit five home runs, including a titanic blast from Kyle Schwarber that traveled 483 feet, registering as the second-longest home run ever hit at Truist Park, and tying the third-longest home run hit in MLB this season. It caused Ryan Howard, who was at the game, to react in astonishment.

It wasn’t just the top of the lineup that was contributing. Schwarber, Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto, Nick Castellanos and Johan Rojas all hit home runs. Rojas’ shot, which just got over the wall in the top of the second, was his second career home run. It was his first home run off of a pitcher (his first career home run came against a position player on Aug. 11).

It tied the Phillies season-record for most home runs hit in a game (they’ve hit five home runs three times earlier this season). It was nothing short of an offensive shellacking. But what made the win all the better for the Phillies was that their pitching held the 289-home-run Braves to just four hits and one runs.

Zack Wheeler was coming off one of his worst outings of the season, against the Braves, at home last week, in which he allowed six earned runs through five innings. He bounced back as much as one can bounce back on Monday night.

He made just one consequential mistake, early — throwing a four-seam fastball down the middle to Ozzie Albies in the first inning, which Albies hit for a solo home run. But that was it. Wheeler retired his next 10 batters. He didn’t allow another baserunner until the fourth inning, when Matt Olson drew a walk with two outs, and then retired five more batters after that.

He finished his night at six inning pitched, allowing one earned run on three hits, two walks, and one home run, with five strikeouts. His pitch count was at 99 through six innings, so Gregory Soto came into the game in the seventh. He and Matt Strahm pitched a hitless inning in the seventh and the eighth, on just 12 and 10 pitches, respectively.

Dylan Covey pitched the ninth. He allowed one hit with two outs, but induced a groundout from Kevin Pillar to end the game.

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