Andrew Painter Posts Best Performance Of Season As Phillies Win Eighth Straight Game In Offensive Blowout Over Cardinals
Aug 22, 2026; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Andrew Painter (24) throws a pitch during the seventh inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
It’s eight wins in a row for Philadelphia, and all of a sudden, the Phillies find themselves just three games back of the Braves for first place in the National League East.
Just 10 days ago, the Philadelphia Phillies found themselves 64-58 overall and not in a playoff spot if the season ended. Their record since returning from the All-Star Game was 10-15, and it seemed like the Phillies were free-falling towards missing the playoffs.
However, after a trip to baseball heaven, aka Dryerville, Iowa, the Phillies all of a sudden have rattled off eight straight victories, their longest streak of the season and longest winning streak since winning nine straight back in May of 2025. It’s also the Phillies’ 39th eight-game winning streak in franchise history.
After tonight’s win, the Phillies have now won three straight series for the first time since June 18-28 and will go for their third consecutive series sweep Sunday afternoon, something the Phillies haven’t accomplished since 2010.
Like the 2010 Phillies, everything was going the Fightins’ way Saturday evening: pitching, hitting, base-running, no matter the play, Philadelphia delivered. The offense burst for 12 runs, the first time they’ve posted double digits since July 26, with every starter recording at least one hit.
A 12-run outburst was great to see, but seeing the entire order contribute to the performance was an even better thing to see. The lineup consistently worked at-bats, kept the line moving, and only needed two home runs to score 12 runs, with both coming way later in the evening. They only struck out four times all night, and three came from Bryce Harper against the Cardinals lefty starter Quinn Mathews.
While the offense was on fire, the big takeaway of the night came from the dominant start from Phillies rookie right-hander Andrew Painter, who posted the longest outing of his career. Painter finished the night with seven innings og one-run ball, allowing just five hits, striking out eight and walking none. The eight strikeouts were tied for his career and season high.
Painter’s fastball was the real deal for really the first time all season, as the velocity of it reached 99.6 mph, the fastest it’s been all season. He had 20 swings and misses on the night, a season high, with five of the 15 swings coming against his four-seamer.
He only allowed the leadoff batter to reach base once in his seven innings of work and lowered his ERA in his last five starts to 3.62. In those five starts since returning from the minors, Painter has allowed two earned runs or fewer in four of those five outings.
The rookie was outstanding; he put on a performance that people have clamored that he was capable of since the Phillies drafted him back in 2021. He looked dominant and untouchable for the first time in his career, giving life to the fifth spot in the Phillies’ rotation that has struggled to win games this season.
Painter got to work right away, and he really didn’t have a choice as a liner right back to him on the first batter of the game landed in his glove. He followed that up with back-to-back strikeouts to close out the inning.
After a successful top of the first, the Phillies offense instantly provided some run support. Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner worked their way on thanks to a walk and a single, respectively, and two batters later, the previous night’s walk-off hero, Alec Bohm, brought Schwarber home thanks to a single to left.
Bohm didn’t stay on the basepaths for long as Edmundo Sosa drove both him and Turner in with an RBI double, extending the Phillies’ early lead to three.
Painter worked through the second quickly, and the Phillies picked up a pair of singles in the bottom half of the inning, but an inning-ending double play ruined any chance of adding more runs. Despite that, an inning later the Phillies added on in a big way.
Two singles in an inning are good, but try four in a row to score two runs. Luis Arraez started that run, and Bohm and Sosa added to load the bases for Bryan De La Cruz. De La Cruz kept the line moving with a single back up the middle, scoring two runs, and another came home on a J.T. Realmuto sac fly. Up 6-0, Derke Hil doubled to make it seven with a double down the left field line, scoring De La Cruz, officially blowing the game open in the third inning.
Up 7-0, Painter continued to dial in his pitches, sending the Cardinals down in order in the fourth and fifth innings. The sixth was Painter’s “worst” inning, as that was the frame where he allowed his sole run, as Blaze Jordan led the inning off with a double and came home on an Alec Burleson single, but Painter managed to strike out Jordan Walker to end the inning.
After giving up his first run, the Phillies had Painter’s back with four more runs in the bottom half of the sixth. Realmuto led the inning off with a double and moved up to third on a single from Justin Crawford. After a sac fly from Schwarber scored Realmuto for one run, Turner put runners on the corners again with a single of his own.
Bryce Harper dug in after striking out the previous three at-bats against Cardinals starter Quinn Mathews, and with a righty reliever in the game, the Showman showed up with a three-run blast to essentially end the game.
With a 10-run lead, Painter went out for the seventh, attempting to toss seven innings for the first time in his career. It wasn’t easy as Nathan Church singled and José Fermín reached on an error with one out, but Painter bear downed, struck out Jimmy Crooks for his eighth strikeout of the night, and got Jordan to ground out to end the inning, ending his outstanding night.
St Louis added a run on a JJ Wetherholt solo bomb in the eighth, but Schwarber answered him back with a solo Schwarbomb of his own in the bottom half of the inning. In the ninth, Chase Shugart came on for the final three outs, and despite allowing a run after a triple from Church, he was able to get a flyout to end the night, with the Phillies winning 12-3 for their eighth straight win.
Matt Brown
Matt has been a Philadelphia sports fan all his life and spent four years at Penn State University majoring in Broadcast Journalism and minoring in Sports Studies. He previously covered Penn State’s field hockey, men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball teams while writing for a Penn State blog called Onward State. He has written and edited for the Phillies, Eagles, and Sixers for Philly Sports Reports since October 2024 and wants to pursue a career in Sports Journalism.
Get New Articles Emailed Right To Your Inbox:
