ALLENTOWN — Andrew Painter’s Triple-A debut was symbolic of how his young career has started. Similar to the flamethrower cruising through three levels of the Phillies’ farm system in his first full season as a pro before dealing with adversity, the 22-year-old breezed through is first two innings on Thursday night prior to running into a challenge.
That challenge was far less serious than recovering from Tommy John surgery and spending countless hours of rehab working his way back to the mound to finally pitch in live games. After retiring eight of his first nine batters, Painter lost his command in the third inning walking the bases loaded before escaping unscathed.
For Painter, embracing the jam was a positive.
“It was good to deal with the adversity. I put myself in that situation but worked my way out of it. There’s no one coming to get you. It’s just you and the hitter and you just got to get out of it,” Painter said.
The Phillies wanted to ramp up the competition for Painter after making four starts with Low-A Clearwater marking the first time since his return from Tommy John surgery he climbed a mound in a meaningful game. The team decided to have him skip Double-A Reading and go right to the highest level in all of MiLB. His first batter in his debut was none other than arguably the top prospect in baseball Roman Anthony. Quite the welcome.
“It’s a little bit different approach than in Low-A,” Painter said. “It’s a little bit harder to kind of see what they are looking for, but with (Garrett) Stubbs back there, there’s a lot of trust with him. I like the game that he called. I feel good with that.“
Painter also felt good snapping off his knee-buckling curveball consistently throughout the first two innings. Anthony swung over the top of the biting breaking ball to start the outing. That was the appetizer leading to the full diet of curveballs Painter used to attack the WooSox hitters. The fifth-ranked prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline went on to rack up four more strikeouts totaling five, all with his curveball.
“It just felt good down. I thought I did a really good job locating it down and that’s something I’ve been working on this spring and in some of the starts in Low-A. I got touched up a bit with a lot of fastballs in my last start, so that’s something I’m going to work on. I didn’t throw too many curveballs in the bullpen. I threw a couple good ones and left it at that.”
Stubbs, who had two hits including an RBI double in a rain-shortened 3-1 IronPigs win, recognized quickly the pitch would be a weapon.
“It was a great pitch today. After getting (Roman) Anthony, I was like, alright, that’s going to be our out pitch today. It was a lot of fun, and he looked really good.“
Painter tossed three scoreless innings, allowing one hit with those five punchouts. His blemishes during his debut were the three walks which were the most he has allowed in any of his five starts as he continues to work his way to the big-league rotation.
The righty surrendered just one walk in 11.1 innings of work in four starts with Low-A Clearwater. Needing 30 pitches to get out of the third inning ultimately cost him a chance to go out for the fourth. The plan for Painter was four innings or 60-65 pitches, and with the elongated inning the 6-foot-8 hurler walked off the mound with visible frustration.
Stubbs told the young phenom prior to the game that a moment like the third inning would happen.
“I love that he was mad because he let those two batters get away. I was glad that he was pissed and competing out there. I was excited for him when he got out of it. It’s going to happen no matter what. Whether you’re Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, you’re going to go through highs and lows of a season, and I wouldn’t even call that a low. It was his first time being out here in a really competitive setting and getting through it.”
IronPigs manager Anthony Contreras was also impressed with how his starter handled the laborious frame.
“Just staying composed. Obviously, it’s not always going to go your way. There’s times you’re facing better teams and obviously when he goes to the big leagues, it’s a whole other beast up there. But him being able to stay composed, slow his heart rate down and then get that pop out in the third inning was huge.”
Contreras added: “There were a lot of positives and things to build off of. “We’ll obviously talk as a group and see where we go from here, but for the most part, calmness, nerves, being able to throw strikes with the fastball. He ran into a little bit of a rut in the third, but he got out of it.”
Thursday’s start was another step in the right direction for Painter as the plan is to get the talented righty in the Phillies’ rotation by the summer according to Dave Dombrowski.
For now, Painter will look to continue to hone his craft and look to go deeper into games. Lehigh Valley will get to enjoy the super talented hurler for a few weeks. If all goes well, Painter will be a dynamic arm to help the Phillies come this summer.
