ALLENTOWN — The Phillies’ No. 1 prospect Andrew Painter once again showed why he is the club’s prized possession and the No. 5 prospect in all of baseball Wednesday night. The 22-year-old racked up a season-high seven strikeouts in four-plus innings of work on 71 pitches on a rain-soaked Wednesday night at Coca-Cola Park.
With a feel like temperature below 50 degrees, wind and rain, it certainly made for adverse pitching weather. Painter has been embracing adversity nearly his whole career. Some poor weather was not going to knock him off course.
“It’s something we have preached. Coming back from the Tommy John process, whatever adversity comes, how will you face it? It’s two years of battling, constant adversity and obstacles and overcoming them. The past few years have been good mentally,” Painter said about dealing with the poor weather.
It was rather clear Painter practiced what he preached. The tall right-hander got off to a strong start retiring nine of his first ten batters faced to open the game with his lone blemish being a two-out walk to the Buffalo nine-hitter, Josh Rivera.
Painter’s command was the best it has been since joining the IronPigs. His fastball, which he featured consistently, sat at 96.5 m.p.h. while topping out at 98 and he had near pinpoint control with it. He also relied on his slider, throwing 27 of them, (Statcast picks up his slider as a cutter) while only throwing three curveballs, a pitch that he recorded all five strikeouts with in his Triple-A debut back on May 8.
The seven strikeouts were also the most since September 9, 2022, when he was with Double-A Reading. He finished his night allowing two runs, one earned on three hits with one walk with 49 of his 71 pitches strikes in a rain-shortened 8-5 Lehigh Valley win.
“I thought the stuff was good. Probably the best it’s been since I’ve been up here,” Painter said. “The fastball played really well. Thought I was pretty efficient, threw a lot of strikes. Would have loved to go out there for the fifth. That’s kind of the goal. All in all, I thought everything was good and I feel confident with this start and moving forward.”
The IronPigs’ offense gave the righty an early lead to work with. Cal Stevenson led off the third inning with a solo homer before Otto Kemp legged out an infield RBI single to make it 2-0 lead after three innings.
In the fourth, Painter dealt with his first bout of adversity. After surrendering a single, Kemp could not field a sacrifice bunt cleanly to put runners at first and second. Painter went on to strikeout the next two batters before Damiano Palmegiani drove in a run with a single.
Next inning, Gabriel Rincones Jr. had trouble finding a fly ball down the right field line off the bat of Ryan McCarty for a leadoff triple which ended Painter’s night. Seth Johnson came in and allowed the inherited run to score on top of a two-run double to give Buffalo a 4-2 lead.
Painter, who was expected to throw 75 pitches or five innings said he is feeling good as his pitch count continues to be elevated as he builds up to a potential summer big league debut.
“The body is bouncing back great. Can’t complain about anything. I feel like I could’ve gone more tonight. Stuff felt really good and going into the fifth I thought all of my stuff was similar to when I started the game.”
Offensively, Lehigh Valley’s potent offense scored four runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth inning to retake the lead highlighted by run-scoring singles from Stevenson, Buddy Kennedy and Garrett Stubbs to make it an 8-4 lead.
For Painter, he continues to learn. Relying on the pitch calling from Stubbs and backup catcher Payton Henry and to go with what is working best on a particular night.
“Having a lot of confidence in the pitch calling and letting them take over the game,” Painter said on what he has learned so far in his three Triple-A starts. “When I have shaken off pitches, it usually hasn’t ended well. Tonight, a 3-2 walk. I shook to go to a curveball and that was not the right pitch there. Stubbs is still giving me a hard time about it,” Painter said with a smile.
He continued: “I just need to trust my stuff and not to be too fine. I think when I get in trouble is when I try to nitpick stuff and I fall behind in counts. The biggest factor is getting ahead early and get in those high leverage counts and making the hitter expand a little bit and not give them what they want.”
Painter now has a 3.09 ERA in seven starts spanning 23.1 innings. He has 27 strikeouts to just seven walks while opposing hitters are hitting .216 against him.
Other Tidbits
Stubbs is on fire at the plate. He extended his on-base streak to 24 games with a two-hit game. He is 19-for-his-last-49 at-bats which is good for a .388 average.
Johnson continues his transition to a reliever this season. He surrendered three earned runs on four hits while walking one and striking out four in two-plus innings of work. In 10 relief appearances he has a 4.97 ERA in 12.1 innings of work. He has not allowed an earned run in eight of those 10 appearances, but in the two outings that he has, he’s surrendered seven earned runs, forcing his ERA as a reliever to be inflated.
Justin Crawford smacked his fourth triple and scored in the win for Lehigh Valley. He extended his hitting streak to eight games. He is hitting .316 in 41 games this season.
Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports
