PHILADELPHIA — A week after punctuating a miserable 10-game stretch by getting swept by one of the worst teams in baseball, the Phillies broomed the Toronto Blue Jays — and closed a get-healthy homestand — with an 11-4 rout Sunday.

The key to the about-face?

Rob Thomson pointed to a bamboo plant in his office.

OK, not really. Like everyone else, the manager knows it’s really more about starting pitching.

Rookie infielder Otto Kemp, Bryce Harper’s first base fill-in, tallied four hits, and the Phillies smashed two home runs, including Nick Castellanos’ sixth-inning grand slam that made it a full-blown knee-slapper for a sold-out crowd of 44,681 on Father’s Day.

But this game, like the others on the homestand, was won from the mound. Making his first Father’s Day start as a dad of four, Zack Wheeler struck out nine in six innings, including five in a row and seven in a span of eight batters.

It continued this string of gems from the starters:

— Sunday: Wheeler — six innings, four hits, two runs (one earned), nine strikeouts, zero walks.

— Saturday: Cristopher Sánchez — seven innings, five hits, two runs, five strikeouts, zero walks.

— Friday: Ranger Suárez — seven innings, four hits, zero runs, six strikeouts, one walk.

— Wednesday: Jesús Luzardo — six innings, five hits, one run, 10 strikeouts, zero walks.

— Monday: Wheeler — six innings, three hits, one run, seven strikeouts, one walk.

There isn’t a bigger reason for the Phillies’ run of five wins in six games — or for optimism, in general, even amid their recent stretch of nine losses in 10 games, that a hot streak is always around the corner.

And the Phillies’ big weekend coincided with a lost weekend for the first-place Mets, who were swept at home by the Rays. The Phillies (42-29) shaved their NL East deficit from 4 1/2 games at the beginning of the week to three, to now 2 1/2.

But about that bamboo …

Two weeks ago, hitting coach Kevin Long’s wife, Marcey, took one look at an ailing plant on a side table in Thomson’s office and volunteered to nurse it back to health. While it received sunlight and TLC at the Longs’ house, the Phillies got swept at home by the Brewers and had a 1-5 trip to Toronto and Pittsburgh.

Last Sunday, Long called his wife.

“We better get that thing back in Thoms’ office,” he said.

The bamboo returned this week, and well, the Phillies took two of three games from the NL Central-leading Cubs before outscoring the Blue Jays by a 22-6 margin in three games.

Wheeler set the tone with a 12-pitch first inning. Despite lacking his peak fastball velocity, he gave up one hit — a two-out single, no less — through four innings, enabling the Phillies to jump to a 4-0 lead against Blue Jays starter José Berríos.

It took all of two pitches for the Phillies to grab the lead. Trea Turner doubled on Berríos’ first pitch; Kyle Schwarber singled home Turner on the second.

Kemp’s big day began in the third inning. He reached on an infield single, stole second, and scored on Alec Bohm’s two-out single. Kemp made it 4-0 in the fourth inning by reaching out over the plate to line a two-run single to left field.

The Phillies called up Kemp on June 7 when Harper went on the injured list with inflammation in his right wrist. After going 0 for 5 with a walk last weekend in Pittsburgh, Kemp was 10 for 24 in six games at home.

After Bohm hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning and Castellanos banged his ninth career grand slam in the sixth, the Phillies emptied the bench. Johan Rojas, Weston Wilson, Edmundo Sosa and even backup catcher Rafael Marchán got into the game. The Phillies finished with 18 hits, tying their season-high from April 19 against the Marlins.

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