Bryson Stott, Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos homered, and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Kansas City Royals 8-4 on Sunday.

Bryce Harper had two hits and drove in a run for the defending champion Phillies, who have won five of seven. Philadelphia began play in second in the NL wild-card standings.

MJ Melendez homered for Kansas City.

Taijuan Walker (13-4) recovered from a shaky first inning to become the first major league pitcher to reach 13 victories.

The Phillies went ahead for good on Schwarber’s 28th homer in the second, a 421-foot drive to center off Zack Greinke (1-12) that made it 5-4. The two-run shot stopped an 0-for-19 skid.

Castellanos tacked on a two-run shot to left in the fifth, and Harper hit a sacrifice fly in the seventh.

Kansas City tagged Walker for three runs on five hits in the first, but the Phillies evened the score in the bottom half on Stott’s opposite-field drive to left with two down.

After Melendez made it 4-3 in the second with a solo shot, Walker settled down and allowed just one more hit. The 30-year-old right-hander finished seven innings of seven-hit ball.

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Royals: Open four-game series at Boston on Monday night. Royals LHP Cole Ragans (3-3, 4.33 ERA) opposes Red Sox RHP Brayan Bello (8-6, 3.79 ERA).