September 03, 2026
Mark J. Rebilas/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Andrew Painter is finally clicking at the big league level.
Andrew Painter gave up a leadoff single, but the damage otherwise stopped there.
The Arizona Diamondbacks wouldn't get another baserunner until the 4th inning, when Gabriel Moreno swatted a low changeup that ricocheted off the glove of Bryson Stott down the third-base line. Officially, that was scored as a fielding error.
And they wouldn't get another hit until the seventh, when Geraldo Perdomo singled with one out, then advanced to second on a Nolan Arenado groundout.
Painter answered with a strikeout of Tim Tawa to end the inning, going back to that changeup low and out of the zone to leave the Arizona hitter whiffing.
The Phillies, wrapping up their three-game set against the D-backs and a long nine-game road trip out West, went on to lose 1-0. But Painter did his part. He dominated.
The young right-hander tossed seven shutout innings. He allowed just those lone two hits, struck out six, and walked no one through 93 pitches, 68 of which he threw for strikes.
It took until he was pulled, and for reliever Jonathan Bowlan to give up an eighth-inning solo homer to James McCann before the Diamondbacks – well, either team, really – could do anything at the plate Wednesday at Chase Field.
Painter, though, wasn't shaken by it. That's just baseball.
"That's part of the game, right?" the 23-year-old said from the visting clubhouse afterward (via NBC Sports Philadelphia). "You're gonna win games that you probably shouldn't win. You're gonna lose other games where, you know, that's just part of the game...
"The team's been hot, we've been rolling. We had fired off six straight, so a little wrinkle along the way, I don't think is gonna hurt us."
And won't hurt him. Not anymore.
Andrew Painter is hitting high 90s on his fastball, and has deceptive movement back in his breaking pitches.
Mark J. Rebilas/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Wednesday's start in Arizona was the third straight that Painter took to at least six innings.
Across those three starts, he has a 1.80 ERA with 20 strikeouts thrown to just three walks and no home runs surrendered. He has given up just four earned runs in total, and gave the Diamondbacks next to nothing to hit on Wednesday.
Painter's fastball topped out at 98.7 miles per hour, and his breaking pitches carried some fierce movement that either crept inside on right-handed hitters to tie them in knots, or swept away from lefties to leave them flailing.
Since getting recalled from Triple-A Lehigh Valley at the end of July, from a minor-league stint meant to reset his game, Painter has gradually improved and now, finally, is looking like the former top prospect and future ace he's long been billed as.
Andrew Painter, finally, is pitching like Andrew Painter, and for the Phillies, just in time.
"It's nice to know," interim manager Don Mattingly said (again via NBCSP). "I think you get the feeling now. Early in the year, it was like that start, basically between him and [Aaron Nola], early in the year, it was just like 'Ugh, these are bad days.'
"Now both of those guys, you feel like they're gonna give you a chance to win. So it is nice to have that."
Because now it's more than enough to comfortably carry the Phillies back to the postseason, and to maybe even still catch the Braves for the NL East lead.
The Phils still trail the Braves by 4.0 games as of Thursday, but they're 79-61, did still take two of three from Arizona, have won 15 of their last 18, and took hold of the NL's first Wild Card spot by a 1.0-game margin over the Cubs.
They're a far cry from July, when they were playing so badly that it was fair enough to wonder whether they were even going to make the playoffs at all.
But they always had Cristopher Sánchez, an ever-ascending ace, in their favor on the mound, along with Jesús Luzardo, who tore through August and just claimed NL Pitcher of the Month honors.
They look to have Zack Wheeler to round out the top three again in the rotation, too, after he powered through an uncharacteristic rut.
But before, when they got down to the fourth and fifth days through the rotation, Nola, the veteran, was struggling, and Painter, the youth, was overwhelmed.
The Phillies had to be ready to out-hit on those days, but for a while, often couldn't.
It was a well-known – and highly frustrating – sore spot for months
But the Phillies have since revamped their hitting approach to great effect, and gave Nola and Painter both their time to work through their troubles.
Now Nola looks dependable again, Painter looks like he's on his way, and the Phillies, coming down the final stretch of the season, look like they don't have to worry too much about the back end of the rotation anymore.
Painter gave up that leadoff single on Wednesday, and not all that long ago, it probably would've snowballed.
But not now.
Now, he can shrug that off and flip it into his best start yet.
It won't hurt him anymore.
"Nah," Painter said. "I mean, it would've had to spiral a little bit more than that to get to that point."
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