BOSTON -- The Phillies have an important balance to strike when it comes to rookie Andrew Painter.
On one hand, this is a team that is fighting just to get back to .500 after a disastrous start to the season.
On the other, Painter is just a 23-year-old pitcher who is still trying to find his footing in the big leagues. He entered Wednesday night's game against the Red Sox with a 6.89 ERA -- and he was 0-4 with a 7.90 ERA in six outings since his March 31 MLB debut.
So when Painter got through five innings of one-run ball at Fenway Park, interim manager Don Mattingly seemingly decided that was good enough -- despite the fact that Painter had thrown only 62 pitches (46 strikes) to that point. Locked in a tie game, Mattingly turned things over to the bullpen to start the sixth inning … and the Phils quickly found themselves in a two-run hole.
After Tanner Banks recorded two outs around a base hit, Orion Kerkering came on and served up a go-ahead two-run homer to Ceddanne Rafaela that proved to be the difference in a 3-1 loss.
Painter finished his night having allowed just one run (a Trevor Story homer) off four hits while striking out four and walking zero. It was the first time in his eight career outings that Painter did not issue a free pass.
The 62 pitches, meanwhile, were by far the fewest Painter has thrown in a single outing. His previous low was 80 on April 12 against the D-backs -- another outing in which he allowed one run over five innings.