PHILADELPHIA -- Andrew Painter stepped out of the Phillies’ dugout shortly before 6 p.m. on Tuesday.
He was less than an hour from his highly anticipated MLB debut. The fans that noticed him at Citizens Bank Park applauded as he walked to the bullpen to begin the final preparations for the biggest day of his professional life. He had waited forever for this, but he seemed to be at peace with himself.
“Just trying to soak it all in,” he said.
Painter, 22, dazzled in a 3-2 victory over the Nationals, striking out eight and allowing four hits, one run and one walk in 5 1/3 innings. It was one of the more memorable debuts in Phillies history, considering the pedigree (Painter is the No. 26 prospect in baseball), the hype (there hasn’t been a more highly touted Phillies pitching prospect since Cole Hamels more than 20 years ago) and the performance.
“It looked like he had been there before,” Brandon Marsh said. “It was dope.”
“Before the game, there’s no pacing -- no nothing,” Kyle Schwarber said. “It just felt like he was mentally prepared for what he was about to go do.”
The first pitch of Painter’s MLB career crossed home plate at 6:42 p.m.
It was a 96.6 mph fastball called for a strike.
It was on.
“After that, everything just felt like it was in sync,” Painter said.
Four pitches later, Nats right fielder James Wood swung over the top of a 1-2 curveball for strike three.
Painter showed everybody on Tuesday why so many people have thought so highly of him for so many years. The son of former Phillies manager Joe Girardi played with Painter in high school. Girardi saw Painter throw as a freshman at Calvary Christian Academy in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He predicted then that Painter would throw 100 mph one day and be a first-round pick. Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski often compared Painter, whom the Phillies selected in the first round of the 2021 Draft, with future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander and World Series hero Josh Beckett.
Wood couldn’t make any comparisons on Tuesday.
“He’s Andrew Painter,” Wood said. “He’s a good pitcher in his own right."
Painter’s four-seam fastball touched 98.7 mph and averaged 96.7 mph. He showed wipeout secondary pitches, getting three strikeouts on changeups, two on sliders and two on curveballs.
Even when he fell behind in the count, he threw his secondary pitches for strikes.
“Felt like I was in control of the pace of the game,” Painter said.
“Our game plan going in, he just executed it to perfection,” catcher J.T. Realmuto said.
Painter showed poise. He got into a jam in the second inning when the Nationals hit back-to-back singles with no outs. He got out of it.
“I thought maybe he'd have some nerves coming to this game, thought we'd get some better pitches to hit, and he was just living on the edges and just did a good job getting ahead of our hitters,” Nationals manager Blake Butera said. “That was as advertised. He's going to be a really good pitcher in this game for a long time."
Painter retired 13 of 15 batters following the second-inning singles until he allowed a one-out single to CJ Abrams in the fifth.
It was his 84th and final pitch of the night.
Manager Rob Thomson walked to the mound to get the ball.
“Great job,” Realmuto told Painter. “Enjoy this.”
“Did you enjoy it?” Thomson asked Painter.
Painter shook his head no.
“Then he figured out what I said, and he shook his head yes,” Thomson said.
Thomson told Painter to tip his cap to the crowd before he got to the dugout. He did.
“I almost forgot,” Painter said.
It was the only time this week that Painter let things speed up on him.
“I had conversations with Painter yesterday and today that were pretty impressive, just his knowledge of their lineup over there,” Realmuto said. “Guys he hasn’t even faced before, he watched video. He had some ideas of how he wanted to work counts. That’s really impressive of a kid that age. You would’ve never known it was his first start. He seemed super calm. Confident.”
Painter gave the Phillies a boost on Tuesday, as they had lost three of their first four games this season. The pitching hasn’t been great. The hitting has been worse.
But Painter provided a spark, and others followed. Schwarber and Adolis García each homered. The bullpen allowed a run in 3 1/3 innings. Jhoan Duran got the save in the ninth with a big assist from Marsh, who broke back to make a nice running catch to rob Wood of a game-tying hit with two outs.
Painter got the win. He was first in the handshake line.
A few minutes later, he greeted about 40 family and friends on the field.
It meant everything to him.
“Just the support, the support system behind me,” he said. “Just seeing everyone come out, take time out of their week to watch me pitch.”
They wouldn’t have missed it for anything.