Andrew Painter’s Continued Struggles Cause Phillies to Drop Final Game of Series to Marlins

The Phillies still won the series against the Marlins, but failed to complete the sweep, dropping the final game of the series in blowout fashion, 12-4. 

It was another rough start for Andrew Painter. The rookie failed to even make it into the third inning, giving up six runs while also giving up two home runs in the process. His ERA is currently 7.06. He’s the first Phillies pitcher with a 7+ ERA in 50+ IP through 14 career outings since Ralph Head did so in 1923. His fastball had no movement and was very, very flat on Wednesday. It will be interesting to see what the Phillies do with their prized prospect before his next start.

After the Phillies’ offense scored two runs in each of the first two innings, the bats went quiet against Sandy Alcantara and the Marlins’ bullpen. Alcantara settled in after giving up four runs quickly and pitched six quality innings. 

Things got off to the worst start for Painter. After striking out the leadoff hitter, he walked Otto Lopez and threw a center-cut fastball right down the plate to Kyle Stowers, which he did not miss, crushing it deep into the right-field seats, giving the Marlins an early 2-0 lead. 

The Phillies would immediately respond in the bottom half of the inning against Alcantara. With runners on the corners from base hits from Trea Turner and Bryce Harper, Brandon Marsh lined a single past the diving first baseman into right field, which brought in Turner. The following batter, Alec Bohm, sent a line drive into right field that tied the game. With two runners still on base, the Phillies would go down via a flyout and groundout. 

And the score was level for exactly two pitches. Owen Caissie took another center-cut fastball and homered to deep right-center field, giving the Marlins the lead right back. The Marlins continued to work up Painter’s pitch count and add more runs. A walk and a double followed after the home run, and Liam Hicks grounded a ball that Bryson Stott booted, which gave the Marlins their fourth run. After getting the next batter to fly out, Stowers took another fastball and blooped it down the left field line to make it 5-2 Miami. 

The bad luck continued to haunt the Phillies and Painter, as a check swing by Xavier Edwards went right over the third base bag, with every runner being safe and making it 6-2 Marlins. Painter finally got out of the inning, but it took nine Marlins coming to the plate, four runs, and 33 pitches.  

The Phils started the bottom of the second with three straight singles from Justin Crawford, Garrett Stubbs, and Turner to load the bases with nobody out. Before Kyle Schwarber could see a pitch from Alcantara, he was called for a balk, which brought home a run to cut the lead in half. He eventually struck out Schwarber, but walked Harper to reload the bases, which helped score another run for the Phillies as a poor throw on a lineout from the third baseman Javier Sanoja allowed Turner to score on an error. That’s all the Phils would get as Bohm grounded out to end the inning. 

Painter was pulled after the two miserable innings he had for Tim Mayza, who worked the first scoreless inning by any team in the top of the third. The same would follow for Alcantara, who also worked through a scoreless bottom half of the third.

The game would remain quiet for the next two innings, with another scoreless inning from Mayza and a scoreless inning from Jonathan Bowlan. Things got even more ugly as Tanner Banks came on for the sixth inning. After the leadoff hitter reached on an error, Joe Mack blasted a no-doubter home run off the Toyota sign on the railing of the second deck in right-center to double the Marlins’ lead. Banks then followed that with a double before finally getting an out from a sacrifice bunt, which sent the runner to third. Lopez drove him in with a sacrifice fly, and Stowers took a hanging slider from Banks right back off the Toyota sign for his second home run of the day to make it 10-4 Marlins. 

In the eighth, Orion Kerkering came on and loaded the bases, hitting a batter and walking two. Up once again was Stowers, who recorded his fourth hit and fifth RBI of the day, singling in Mack to make it 11-4 Marlins. The Marlins would tack on one more run in the top of the 9th, with Jakob Marsee hitting the 5th home run of the day for the Marlins. The Phillies decided to go with a position player, as Stubbs came on to get the last out of the inning. 

The Phillies would go down quietly in the bottom of the ninth, giving the Marlins the 12-4 victory. 

The Phillies will welcome the last-place Mets to Citizens Bank Park for the first time this season, with Aaron Nola pitching the opening game on Thursday night at 6:40 p.m.

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