ATLANTA -- Phillies rookie Andrew Painter has pitched better than he did on Sunday afternoon at Truist Park, but he showed something.
Painter struggled with his command in the heat and humidity, but he left with a one-run lead in the fifth inning in a 9-4 victory over the Braves. The Phillies (83-67) are five behind the Braves (88-62) in the National League East with 12 regular-season games to play. It would take a miracle to win a third consecutive division title at this point, meaning if the Phils want to make a fifth consecutive trip to the postseason, the path is almost certainly a Wild Card.
But Painter kept them in position for one. The Phillies are tied with the Cubs (83-67) for the No. 1 Wild Card spot.
“It was a grind out there,” Painter said.
Painter allowed one run on six hits and four walks to go with three strikeouts. He struck out Ronald Acuña Jr. swinging with a 97.4 mph fastball in the first inning. But he 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).
But then, with the bases loaded and one out in the fourth, Painter got Acuña to fly out to right field and Matt Olson to ground out.
“That’s the maturation of becoming a big leaguer and finding yourself,” Kyle Schwarber said. “And I feel like he's doing a really good job of holding his head.”
Painter has solidified the No. 5 spot in the Phillies’ rotation since his return on July 31.
But how might he fit into their 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 Phillies’ fourth blown save in the series. The bullpen entered Sunday with a 5.76 ERA and four blown saves in September.
Philadelphia scored seven runs in the eighth to bail out Alvarado, but it’s clear the team could use bullpen help in October. Painter could move into the bullpen, if Zack Wheeler, Cristopher Sánchez, Jesús Luzardo and Aaron Nola are healthy in the rotation.
“I'm bought in on whatever they want,” Painter said. “So if that's something that's going to help the team win, I'm willing to do it.”
Of course, that’s also for a more serious conversation in the next couple weeks.
“It’s nothing that we’ve talked about at this point,” interim manager Don Mattingly said before the game. “I think [president of baseball operations] 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.”
Mattingly couldn’t dismiss the idea out of hand, though.
But there are reasons why it makes sense, and potentially could work. The Phillies have used an opener twice this season for Painter, so he has experience coming out of the bullpen. 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.
“Be able to rear back a little bit and let it eat a little bit more,” Painter said. “We’ll just be able to empty the tank early.”
But the Phillies need to get to the postseason first. They have won only four of their last 11 games, but they remain in a strong position to make the playoffs. They left Truist Park with a 1 1/2-game lead over the Padres (80-68) and a three-game lead over the Diamondbacks (79-70) -- pending their results on Sunday. Both are trying to earn Wild Cards.
“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 [Painter] is 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.”