ATLANTA -- The Phillies played seven games in the last 10 days against the Braves, including Sunday afternoon’s 9-4 victory at Truist Park.
Philadelphia (83-67) went 3-4, falling five behind Atlanta (88-62) in the National League East standings with 12 regular-season games to play. It would take a miracle for the Phils to win a third consecutive division title at this point, meaning if they want to make a fifth consecutive trip to the postseason, they must clinch a Wild Card spot.
A lot can happen between now and the final game of the regular season on Sept. 27, but the Phillies are in a good spot. They entered Sunday one game behind the Cubs for the NL’s top Wild Card spot with a 1 1/2-game lead over the Padres for the No. 2 Wild Card and a three-game lead over the Diamondbacks for the No. 3.
So, it’s natural to look ahead.
Phillies rookie Andrew Painter started on Sunday. He allowed one run on six hits and four walks in five innings to go with three strikeouts. He overpowered Ronald Acuña Jr. with a 97.4 mph fastball in the first inning. But Painter also walked Ha-Seong Kim twice. Kim entered the game with a .359 OPS, which would be the third lowest among players this decade (minimum 100 plate appearances).
Still, Painter has solidified the No. 5 spot in the rotation since his return on July 31.
But how does he fit into the Phillies’ postseason plans? The question came to mind before and during Sunday’s game. Painter left with a 2-1 lead, then José Alvarado allowed a game-tying run in the seventh.
It was the Phils’ fourth blown save in the series. The bullpen entered Sunday with a 5.76 ERA and four blown saves in September.
The Phillies scored seven runs in the eighth inning to bail out Alvarado, but it’s clear they could use bullpen help in October. Painter could help, if Zack Wheeler, Cristopher Sánchez, Jesús Luzardo and Aaron Nola are healthy in the rotation.
“It’s nothing that we’ve talked about at this point,” interim manager Don Mattingly said before the game. “I think Dave [Dombrowski] is a lot like me. He doesn’t really want to start talking about what ifs. We’ve got to take care of business now. We don’t want to put the cart in front of the horse. We haven’t really had any kind of planning on what anything would look like at this point.”
But Mattingly couldn’t dismiss the idea out of hand, either.
The Phillies have used an opener twice this season for Painter, so he has experience coming out of the bullpen during a game. His fastball averaged 97.3 mph on Sunday. It touched 99.2 mph.
It’s easy to imagine Painter picking up a tick in velocity in a short burst, too.
“We need to get there,” pitching coach Caleb Cotham said. “We’re focused on winning the most games. But I think it's at some point sitting down and looking at how we can best use all our guys. If he’s doing what he's capable of doing, he’s someone that can get big outs. He can be a weapon. So yeah, it might be something, but we haven't gone down that road yet.”