PHOENIX — One swing decided it.
For seven shutout innings on Wednesday, Andrew Painter did his part against the Diamondbacks to preserve the scoreless tie. But Arizona catcher James McCann ambushed the first pitch thrown by reliever Jonathan Bowlan in the eighth inning for a go-ahead home run in the 1-0 Phillies loss.
The Phillies offense didn’t back up the rookie right-hander’s performance, despite it being a bullpen game for Arizona. With just three hits for each team, the margin of error for the pitchers was razor-thin. And McCann’s swing proved to be the difference.
“We didn’t really do enough to win,” said interim manager Don Mattingly. “We didn’t put any real pressure on them.”
Seven pitchers split the job on the mound for the Diamondbacks. Bryan De La Cruz accounted for the Phillies’ only hits through the first six innings: Aa double in the third and a single in the sixth. Both times, the Phillies failed to advance him. Bryce Harper added a single in the seventh, but the offense didn’t capitalize on that, either. They did not advance a runner to third base in the game.
It was a frustrating game to cap off a frustrating road trip for the top two hitters in the Phillies batting order. Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber went hitless to finish with .158 and .171 respective batting averages across the nine-game swing. Turner struck out three times on Wednesday.
“It’s like early, late, early, late,” said Schwarber, who struck out twice. “There are going to be times when you’re up, you’re down, and you have to keep finding a way to be competitive, and that’s what I try to do on a daily basis, and get right back to work.”
The Phillies still went 6-3 on the trip, even without consistent contributions from the top two spots in the lineup. And although the team boarded the flight home for their biggest series yet — four games against NL East-leading Atlanta — on the heels of a loss, Painter’s performance Wednesday provided a dose of positivity.
The rookie turned in one of his best starts of the year as he continued his second-half resurgence. While starting pitching has long been the Phillies’ calling card, the revival of Aaron Nola and now Painter’s development has made them deeper and even more formidable.
Earlier this year, the Phillies had a stretch of 13 consecutive losses in games started by the fifth rotation spot. Painter was on the mound for seven of those, and the others came while he was demoted to triple A after his struggles reached a fever pitch.
“Early in the year, basically between him and Noles, it just was like, ‘Ah, these are bad days,’” Mattingly said. “Now, both of those guys, you feel like they’re going to give you a chance to win. So it is nice to have that.”
But even as a revitalized fastball and tweaked changeup helped turn Painter’s rookie season around, he still had issues giving up first-inning runs. He had a 10.00 ERA in the first inning entering Wednesday, which included the three early runs he allowed in his previous start in Anaheim.
Against the Diamondbacks, who have a relatively passive lineup with the fourth-lowest swing rate (45.7%) in baseball, Painter knew he had to be aggressive in the zone early. And after he gave up a leadoff single to Lars Nootbaar, that approach helped him settle in earlier than in his previous outings.
“They knew that I was in the zone a lot, so you kind of got to force their hand,” Painter said. “You need the early outs if you’re going to throw seven-plus innings. So just setting that tone early, and trying to earn a little bit more chase, or a little bit more aggressiveness a second or third time through.”
Painter retired the next nine Diamondbacks. He didn’t allow another hit until the seventh when Geraldo Perdomo singled, but he rebounded by forcing a Nolan Arenado ground out and striking out Tim Tawa on a changeup.
It was Painter’s sixth strikeout of the night — and fourth on that pitch — to end his outing on a high note. His confidence in the changeup has grown since he was called back up on July 31. On Wednesday, he threw it 30% of the time to left-handers and 12% of the time against righties.
While most pitchers shy away from throwing changeups to same-sided hitters because they break toward the batter, Painter views right-on-right changeups as a potential unexpected weapon.
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“The command of it was pretty consistent,” Painter said. “It was either down or it was arm side. There weren’t really those ones I hang over the middle of the plate. I thought they were really good to the righties. That’s something I want to continue to build on, is being able to throw that right-on-right.”
Painter’s pitch count reached 93 in the seventh inning. Mattingly said he would have considered sending the righty back out for the eighth if he was pitching on extra rest, but instead he called on Bowlan.
The reliever pitched 1⅓ innings during Tuesday’s win. His first pitch to McCann was a sweeper, located well at the bottom of the zone, but the Arizona catcher was sitting on it. He sent it 409 feet into the left-field seats.
“I feel like it was executed pretty well. Definitely could have been better, looking back on it,” Bowlan said. “But I mean, we’re not perfect, and I tried my best. He just put a good swing on it. … It’s just part of the game. You live and you learn.”
The Phillies put the tying run aboard when Harper drew his second walk of the game with two outs in the ninth inning. But there was no late-game magic this time. Luis Arraez grounded out on the first pitch to snap the Phillies’ win streak at six.
The club now heads back home to open a massive series against the Braves on Friday. Atlanta currently holds a four-game lead on the Phillies.
“I look at it like we need to win a game,” said Mattingly. “Keep it simple. Win a game.”
