Loss drops Arizona 31⁄2 back for wild card

Vince Velasquez allowed two runs in a season-high seven innings and Scott Kingery homered in his hometown ballpark, leading the Philadelphia Phillies to a 7-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday night.

Velasquez (4-6) gave up six hits, struck out three and got help from a running catch in left field by Adam Haseley with a runner on and two outs in the seventh, taking a hit away from Arizona’s Carson Kelly. Jean Segura drove in two runs for the Phillies.

Philadelphia maintained its hold on a wild-card spot in the National League, while the Diamondbacks dropped to 31⁄2 games off the pace in what is a key three-game series for both contenders.

David Peralta had two hits and drove in two runs for the Diamondbacks. Starter Merrill Kelly (7-12) gave up three earned runs on eight hits with four strikeouts in six innings.

Ketel Marte led off the bottom of the first with a triple and came home on Peralta’s grounder. The Phillies tied it at 1 on Phoenix native Kingery’s 14th home run of the season in the second.

Philadelphia went ahead for good with two runs in the third inning. Rhys Hoskins reached on catcher’s interference and later scored on J.T. Realmuto’s double.

Segura followed with a shallow fly ball to center field on which Marte broke late and couldn’t catch, allowing Bryce Harper to score to make it 3-1.

Eduardo Escobar’s sacrifice fly drove in Kelly and made it a one-run game in the bottom of the third. But the Phillies manufactured another run on Haseley’s double, a sacrifice bunt by Velasquez and Cesar Hernandez’s grounder.

The Phillies took a 7-3 lead following single runs in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings. The latter two runs came in after two throwing errors, a walk, stolen base and wild pitch.