Phillies 6, Nationals 3: Carlos Ruiz belted a three-run homer and Cole Hamels recorded his career-best 16th victory as host Philadelphia kept its faint postseason hopes alive by toppling Washington.

Darin Ruf belted his first career homer in his first at-bat and Domonic Brown also went deep the Phillies, who defeated the Nationals for the fourth straight time to move to remain 5 1/2 games back of St. Louis in the race for the National League's second wild card.

Rookie Bryce Harper and Kurt Suzuki both had an RBI single and scored a run. Ryan Zimmerman also had an RBI single for the Nationals, who saw their magic number remain at five for winning the division. Washington holds a four-game lead over Atlanta, which clinched a postseason berth with a 4-3 triumph over Miami on Freddie Freeman's walk-off homer.

After Ryan Howard's RBI single gave Philadelphia a 2-1 lead in the third inning, Ruiz jumped on a belt-high fastball from Ross Detwiler (10-7) and deposited it over the wall in left-center field. The blast was Ruiz's 16th - and second in four games.

Hamels (16-6) posted his fourth straight victory and improved to 13-5 lifetime versus Washington after striking out six in five innings. Four relievers bridged the gap to Jonathan Papelbon, who retired the side in the ninth inning for his 37th save.

GAME NOTEBOOK: After Ruf homered, the rest of his Phillies teammates ignored him until the end of the inning. He went 2-for-3 before exiting the contest in the seventh inning. ... Philadelphia slugger Howard has 16 RBIs in his last 11 games. ... Detwiler saw his three-game winning streak come to an end after yielding five runs on as many hits in five innings.