‘Day-by-day’ is the approach many of the teams on the playoff bubble take at this time of year.<\/p>\n
The Phillies, a team still fairly firm in the National League playoff race, are taking things ‘start-by-start’ with their fifth rotation spot.<\/p>\n
They have to.<\/p>\n
They entered Friday having lost 11 straight turns out of that spot, each one since May 18. So when the Phillies called up Andrew Painter to start against the Orioles, there was some buzz around the decision.<\/p>\n
As Don Mattingly said pregame, Painter gave them the best chance to win.<\/p>\n
For six innings, he did.<\/p>\n
But the Phillies still could not finish it off, letting a late lead disappear in a 6-4 loss to the Orioles on Friday night at Camden Yards.<\/p>\n
The streak is now 12 straight losses out of the No. 5 rotation turn.<\/p>\n
If there was a bright side, it was the Phillies’ rookie. He showed fight.<\/p>\n
After the Phillies\u2019 offense came out hot against Orioles right-hander Brandon Young and put up two runs in the first inning, Painter was bitten by the home run ball, exactly what helped turn his first 14-start stint into a 7.06 ERA.<\/p>\n
Dylan Beavers opened the bottom half of the first with a 101.8 mph double. Longtime NL East rival Pete Alonso followed with a 109.3 mph two-run homer, just two pitches after missing another one foul.<\/p>\n
Not exactly how the Phillies wanted Painter\u2019s return to begin. But what came after should give them some encouragement as the Aug. 3 deadline approaches.<\/p>\n
THE RESPONSE<\/p>\n
Encouraging might be an understatement.<\/p>\n
After the pair of extra-base hits in the first, Painter retired 18 of the next 21 hitters he faced.<\/p>\n
His command settled in. And the thing that gave him trouble during his first major-league stint, first-pitch strikes, was better. He got ahead 65 percent of the time.<\/p>\n
Painter showed poise on the mound and threw his pitches with conviction, a trait the Phillies needed to see after his demotion. He finished with six innings of two-run ball, three walks and six strikeouts.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, with the way it started, the first two batters, I gotta dig deep,\u201d Painter said. \u201cThat\u2019s one of those where you can go south real quick. So, to bounce back and put together six was a big one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mattingly saw the same shift after the first inning.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce he got past that, really just aggressive in the zone,\u201d Mattingly said. \u201cAll his stuff was good to see. So that was really good for us. Obviously, it didn\u2019t end in the same way, but his part was great.\u201d<\/p>\n
He gave them a chance.<\/p>\n
Then the bullpen gave it back.<\/p>\n
THE MIX, THE NUMBERS AND THE SPIN<\/p>\n
Painter also did it with a different look.<\/p>\n
In his first big-league stint, he relied heavily on his four-seam fastball, throwing it 33 percent of the time overall and 39 percent to left-handed hitters. On Friday, that dropped to 28 percent against all hitters.<\/p>\n
The pitch that took the spotlight?<\/p>\n
The sweeper.<\/p>\n
It was already one of Painter\u2019s better pitches before he was sent down, but he used it only 11 percent of the time then. Against the Orioles, it became a much bigger part of his plan.<\/p>\n
He used it 34 percent of the time overall. Against right-handed hitters, nearly half of his pitches were sweepers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of my best pitches,\u201d Painter said. \u201cSo I think we kind of honed in on throwing that more to lefties and seeing it as more of a weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n
The change was not only about one pitch.<\/p>\n
Painter did not get a ton of chase out of the zone, but he generated enough soft contact to let his defense make plays behind him, something the Phillies had struggled with in recent games.<\/p>\n
The four-seamer had different life, too. Its spin was up 177 RPMs, a step in the right direction for a pitch that had not been sneaking up on hitters enough earlier in the season.<\/p>\n
J.T. Realmuto thought Painter found the fastball after the first inning.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like it had pretty good life,\u201d Realmuto said. \u201cAfter that first inning, he commanded pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mattingly pointed less to one specific offering and more to the way Painter carried himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the whole body language was aggression, on the attack,\u201d Mattingly said. \u201cYou see he was confident with his stuff. Really, really good outing.\u201d<\/p>\n
PAINTER’S PITCHES OF THE NIGHT<\/p>\n
Arguably, there were two.<\/p>\n
The pitch Painter worked on in the minors, along with the fastball, was his circle-change, a pitch that replaced the splitter, and that helped bump the velocity 3.4 mph above his previous average on the pitch.<\/p>\n
The shape was tighter, too.<\/p>\n
Painter said the old version of the split had started to cut on him. He was gripping a splitter in his glove pre-pitch before all of his deliveries, which he believes, a “theory” could have hurt his fastball. He wanted something reliable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just looking for some sort of shape that was consistent,\u201d Painter said. \u201cSomething I knew what it was going to do, where it was going to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Realmuto saw the difference from behind the plate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe changeup today was much more consistent with its shape,\u201d Realmuto said. \u201cIt moved the direction it was supposed to, away from the left-hand hand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just ask Leody Taveras.<\/p>\n
In the third, with runners on second and third, two outs and the Phillies ahead 3-2, Painter got ahead of the Orioles\u2019 right fielder 1-2. After raising his eye level up and away during the at-bat, Painter threw a splitter that fell right off the table for a swing and miss.<\/p>\n
Gross.<\/p>\n
Later, with a runner on base in the sixth, Painter did something he had struggled to do in his first stint. He finished strong.<\/p>\n
The rookie induced a 6-3 unassisted double play to end his night.<\/p>\n
Asked if Painter made a case to handle the No. 5 spot moving forward, Mattingly did not overstate one start. But he did not undersell it, either.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you thought you were getting that every time out, then you would like having that spot,\u201d Mattingly said. \u201cHe can do what we think he\u2019s capable of doing. It was really good to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
BUT THE ‘PEN COLLAPSED<\/p>\n
It feels like the Phillies\u2019 deadline priority changes by the day.<\/p>\n
That makes this post-All-Star break skid even more frustrating for the Philadelphia faithful. When they hit, they do not get enough pitching. When they get a good start, they do not hit. On Friday, for six innings, they got enough of both.<\/p>\n
Then the bullpen, which has been one of the worst in baseball since June, fell apart.<\/p>\n
After Painter finished six, Mattingly turned to Orion Kerkering, who had one of the worst appearances of his career. Kerkering allowed four earned runs, the most he has ever allowed in an outing, on two hits and a walk. His ERA is 6.00 over his last seven appearances.<\/p>\n
He was not looking for a soft landing afterward.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt pisses me the f\u2014 off,\u201d Kerkering said. \u201cIt\u2019s frustrating, because you can\u2019t give this team a chance to win, almost, it feels like. And it pisses me off a lot. I\u2019m just gonna figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tim Mayza entered with runners on and allowed a two-run triple. The Orioles went from trailing 4-2 to leading 6-4.<\/p>\n
Mattingly said the bullpen\u2019s rough stretch has not shaken his belief in the group, but he did not pretend the late innings have been clean.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hasn\u2019t been good lately,\u201d Mattingly said. \u201cThe back end has been a little rough lately.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Phillies had earlier gotten solo homers from Trea Turner, his 16th, and J.T. Realmuto, his eighth. But they went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position, another problem in a game they had a chance to win.<\/p>\n
Realmuto did not pin the loss on one inning alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not the brand of baseball we want to be playing,\u201d Realmuto said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got the guys in this room to win. We know that. We just have to play better.\u201d<\/p>\n
So Painter\u2019s return was a positive.<\/p>\n
The loss was not.<\/p>\n
And now, with the deadline days away, the Phillies\u2019 list of needs still feels like it keeps shifting. Back-end starter. Bullpen help. Right-handed bat. Cleaner defense. More consistent offense.<\/p>\n
Painter gave them six innings and a reason to believe he can be part of the answer.<\/p>\n
The Phillies still lost their 12th straight game out of the No. 5 rotation spot.<\/p>\n
That says plenty about where they are right now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘Day-by-day’ is the approach many of the teams on the playoff bubble take at this time of year.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,259266,266099,82],"class_list":["post-839857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-phillies-analysis","tag-phillies-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}