PHILADELPHIA – Maikel Franco turned and waved to his Phillies teammates from second base Wednesday night at Citizens Bank Park.

The wave is from the video game "Fortnite," and it has become a thing for the Phillies every time they pick up an extra-base hit. There haven't been many waves lately as the offense has struggled, scoring one or fewer runs in five of the previous nine games.

But Franco’s bases-clearing double to right-center field in the seventh inning scored J.T. Realmuto, Aaron Altherr and Cesar Hernandez to give the Phils a two-run lead in a 7-3 victory over the Tigers.

“I feel pretty confident right now,” Franco said. “I’m just going out there trying not to do too much, trying to go out there and do what I can to get my team better. That’s what I’ve been doing so far.”

Franco crushed a 0-1 sinker from right-hander Victor Alcantara. Phillies manager Gabe Kapler said last season it was the type of pitch that “was likely a ground ball to the left side in that situation. We're using the whole field, and Maikey especially, he's making a concerted effort to do just that, and tonight was evidence.”

Franco is batting .262 with seven home runs, 25 RBIs and an .858 OPS in 122 plate appearances. He has spent most of the season hitting eighth, which keeps getting brought up every time he has a big game.

Like, "Hey, might the Phillies move Franco out of the eight-hole because he’s been doing so well?"

Like, "No, why mess with Franco’s mojo?"

Franco’s 25 RBIs are tied with Rhys Hoskins for the team lead and tied for 10th most in baseball. Franco is on pace for 38 home runs and 135 RBIs. To put that in perspective, the single-season record for home runs in the eight-hole is Del Crandall’s 22 with the 1955 Milwaukee Braves. The single-season record for RBIs in the eight-hole are Babe Dahlgren’s 89 with the ‘39 Yankees.

(Franco has six homers and 23 RBIs in the eight-hole. He has one homer and two RBIs hitting elsewhere.)

“That’s a really good lineup obviously,” Detroit left-hander Daniel Norris said. “Some really good hitters. Anytime you’ve got Maikel Franco hitting eighth, you’re pretty stacked. Really good hitting lineup. Obviously [Bryce] Harper is the biggest name, and Hoskins. But one through eight, they’re really good.”

Andrew McCutchen later singled in the seventh to score Franco. Hoskins hit his ninth homer of the season in the eighth.

“These guys can hit,” Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire said. “You saw what can happen in one big inning. Every time we got a ball up, they crushed it. That’s their baseball team over there. They’ve got some really good hitters, that’s a really good baseball team. They’ll be competing for that division and that’s because of that right there – every time you made a mistake in that one inning, they just killed it.”

The offensive outburst, which started when Realmuto poked a double down the right-field line in the seventh, overshadowed Aaron Nola’s performance. He allowed seven hits, one run and three walks in 5 2/3 innings. Nola struck out six.

Five of Nola’s six strikeouts came on curveballs. The breaking ball has not been sharp this season, but he said it was its best this season on Wednesday.

“I knew in the bullpen [session] my curveball was good today and my changeup was pretty good,” Nola said. “I just felt on line with everything. I kind of mixed in my fastballs better than I did in the previous starts, so I didn’t really panic [after the leadoff double in the first inning].”

Nola has allowed two earned runs in his last 15 innings. If he has turned the corner and if the offense can get back on track -- the Phillies scored seven runs without Bryce Harper, who went 0-for-4 -- the Phils should win a lot of games when Nola is on the mound.

“We all go through it. It’s going to happen,” Nola said about Harper’s struggles. “You’re not going to go through a whole baseball season really good. That’s just the way the game is. There are 162 regular-season games, so it’s a long season. You see guys start off hot, cool off and get back to hot again. You see guys start off slow and get hot. Any given time, any given day, it can change.”