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.
Now, that doesn't mean Painter won't hit the 70-pitch mark or pitch into the seventh inning at any point moving forward. But for now, the Phillies seem content with Painter just putting the team in position to win a game.
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.
Painter departed with a 3-2 lead after Alec Bohm smashed a go-ahead homer to the deepest part of the park in the bottom of the sixth inning. Though the Reds rallied to take a one-run lead in the top of the eighth, Bryson Stott saved the day with a go-ahead two-run homer in the bottom half that proved to be the difference.
It was perhaps fitting that Bohm and Stott played the biggest role offensively on a night when Painter took another step in the right direction.
Like the rookie pitcher, Bohm and Stott are working to overcome slow starts of their own.
Bohm extended his hitting streak to nine games since being benched for two games earlier this month. He's 15-for-35 (.429) with three home runs during that stretch. Stott, meanwhile, is hitting .254 (15-for-59) with five homers in May after hitting .207 across 95 homerless plate appearances in March/April.