Efficient Painter not the only Phillie having a confidence surge

PHILADELPHIA -- Andrew Painter once again did his job on Monday night.

And, once again, Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly didn't want to push it.

Painter completed six innings for the first time in his young career in the club's 5-4 win over the Reds at Citizens Bank Park. Yet despite being at only 69 pitches and having retired 10 consecutive batters, he did not come back out for the seventh.

That came on the heels of Painter being lifted after just 62 pitches over five innings of one-run ball against the Red Sox his last time out.

After Painter struggled to a 6.89 ERA through his first seven big league outings, the Phillies are simply trying to build up the confidence of the highly touted 23-year-old rookie whom they believe can be their next budding ace.

So it was perhaps only fitting that two Phillies experiencing a confidence surge of their own played the biggest role behind Painter.

Alec Bohm hit a solo homer in the sixth inning to extend his hitting streak to nine games since Mattingly gave him a two-game “reset” earlier this month. He’s hitting .429 (15-for-35) with a 1.231 OPS during that stretch.

Meanwhile, Bryson Stott hit a go-ahead two-run homer with two outs in the eighth inning that proved to be the difference. He now has an .890 OPS and five homers in 64 plate appearances in May after posting a .534 OPS over 95 homerless plate appearances in March/April.

“With the lineup, the deeper it gets, the more guys who are contributing, it takes pressure off the top,” Mattingly said. “Those guys are going to carry the load for the most part, but if you're going to have a good year, you need everybody kind of having good years.”

That was especially true on Monday, when the Phillies were without MLB home run leader Kyle Schwarber, who was out with an illness.

So, leave it to Stott to hit a Schwarber-esque moonshot that had a launch angle of 44 degrees -- four degrees higher than any of Stott’s previous 53 career homers.

“When I was going to first, I saw the exit velo board said 44 degrees,” Stott said. “So I was hoping for a double at that point.”

Instead, it cleared the wall for his second homer in as many games.

Though it certainly wasn’t the case early in the season, that’s just the way things have gone of late for not just Stott, but the Phillies. They improved to 16-4 under Mattingly and 25-23 overall. Sitting two games above .500 matches their season high.

Everyone seems to be trending in the right direction, including Painter.

“Really good,” said Mattingly, who added that Painter would have gone back out for the seventh had the Phillies not taken the lead on Bohm’s homer in the bottom of the sixth.

Regardless, the Phillies seem content with Painter simply putting the team in position to win a game each time out -- and he’s fully on board.

“I trust every move that's being made out here,” Painter said. “I just want to help the team win, and whatever that is, it's what I'm willing to do.”

He did exactly that on Monday with six innings of two-run ball. He allowed just three hits while striking out three and walking two.

Sure, there are still areas in which Painter can grow. He induced only three whiffs on 29 swings from Reds batters, his fewest number of swings-and-misses in any of his nine outings. On 13 swings against Painter's troublesome four-seamer, the Reds did not miss once.

That said, Painter did use his fastball effectively at times. Take, for example, the sixth inning when he started Elly De La Cruz with three straight heaters up in the zone. De La Cruz took the first for a ball, then fouled off the next two before Painter froze him with a sweeper at the bottom of the zone.

Painter turned that into an eight-pitch sixth inning following a seven-pitch fifth and an eight-pitch fourth.

“It feels great,” Painter said. “Every time I go out there and toe the rubber, my job is to go help the team win. So, I know it's been a rough last couple, but just glad I could go out there and do that.”

Though he settled for a no-decision, it marked the first time the Phillies have won a game Painter started since April 6.

“He looks really good,” Stott said. “He's got elite stuff, and I think once he knows that, I think you'll see a lot more outings like this.”

Maybe even longer ones, too.