The Phillies had sent Andrew Painter down to the minors in mid June as they searched for answers to their fifth starter problem. They had clearly not given up on Painter as a project, but at the time, they needed much more than what Painter was giving them. While in Lehigh Valley, Painter wasn’t exactly a paragon of effectiveness as he tried to sort out his issues. His five starts while there saw him strike out roughly the same amount of batters as he did in the majors, but the control was still a bit sketchy.
However, since returning to the majors with the Phillies, the things that he apparently needed to work on have been much better, Saturday night being the best start he has had this year.
Seven innings, five hits, one run, no walks, eight strikeouts….and twenty swings and misses, the most he has had this year.
While Painter was carving up the Cardinals offense, the Phillies offense was cooking. Three runs in the first inning thanks to Alec Bohm continuing his hot streak with an RBI single and Edmundo Sosa filling in nicely for Bryson Stott and getting a two RBI double to make it 3-0.
In the third, Bryan de la Cruz had an RBI single with the bases loaded to tack on two more runs, followed by a sacrifice fly by J.T. Realmuto and an RBI double by Derek Hill to essentially ice the game at 7-0. St. Louis got on the board in the sixth with an RBI single by Alec Burleson, but it was on a great pitch by Painter, making it a tip of the cap and move on to the next batter. In their half of the sixth, four more runs were added thanks to an sacrifice fly by Kyle Schwarber and a three run missile by Bryce Harper.
Schwarber must have been jealous as he added one that may have injured someone had it hit them directly.
Did the Cardinals tack on two more runs at the end? Sure, but who cares!
The story here was Painter. Seeing him be an effective version of himself has added quite a bit of stability to the rotation. With the way everyone has been pitching, there are five starters that are giving the Phillies a good start each time he goes out. Has Zack Wheeler struggled? Sure, but with Painter pitching well, particularly this well tonight, the team can weather that. Seeing him get this many swings and misses is particularly encouraging as that was one of the bigger bugaboos to his game this year, that he wasn’t able to get hitters out on his own. Should he be considered “fixed”? Talk to me when this becomes the norm rather than a “Wow!” type of start, but it’s surely another big step in the direction the team seems to have him back on.
