Braves get to Andrew Painter with three-run sixth, hand Phillies 10th straight loss

ATLANTA — Garrett Stubbs did the talking. Andrew Painter nodded along with his catcher. After the mound meeting in the sixth inning here Friday night, the Phillies had a plan.

For stymying a Braves rally. For stopping The Skid.

Mostly for restoring order to their world, if for one game.

But Painter fell behind in the count and had to come back with a fastball. Pinch-hitting Michael Harris II blistered it to left field. Maybe the ball was catchable, but probably not. In any case, it went for a go-ahead, two-run double.

And that was how the Phillies lost their 10th game in a row.

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For posterity, the score wound up 5-3. The Phillies, in full freefall and with three of president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski’s most trusted scouts parachuting into town for the weekend, have their longest skid since an 11-gamer in September 1999.

That was a bad team that was supposed to be lousy. These Phillies have a $317 million luxury-tax payroll, stars galore ... and a worst-in-the-majors 8-18 record. They’re 10½ games behind the division-leading Braves. It isn’t even May.

And it feels like they may never win again.

“It’s not great,” said Bryce Harper, who broke a 2-2 tie with a leadoff homer in the fifth inning. “Obviously not the spot where we want to be. I’ve said it multiple times. It’s like beating a dead horse, man. Nobody wants to hear it. We’ve just got to win, plain and simple.”

Their next best hope: Zack Wheeler will make his return Saturday night from thoracic outlet syndrome. Maybe it will bring an end to the misery.

“I don’t think a lot of people thought Wheels was ever going to throw a pitch again,” Harper said. “For us to be able to get him back, just for him to be on the mound, personally, is a great accomplishment.”

After getting swept in Chicago, the Phillies were met here by pro scouts Charley Kerfeld, David Chadd, and Brad Sloan, three of Dombrowski’s top lieutenants. No amount of organizational brainpower is too much in times of crisis.

But here was Painter, toting a 3-2 lead and fighting through a jam, one out from completing the sixth inning for the first time in his fourth career start.

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The Phillies had lefty reliever Kyle Backhus loosening, but manager Rob Thomson stuck with Painter, even after the Braves sent up righty-mashing Harris, scratched from the original lineup because of quadriceps tightness.

“[Painter] was at 85 pitches, and to me, he was still throwing the ball good,” Thomson said. “He’s got to learn to get through that. And he will.”

Not calling for the lefty went against the scouting report. But it was a show of confidence in a prized 23-year-old rookie, a move most managers make in April to pay dividends in August and September.

Except that nothing tends to work out when a team is reeling.

Stubbs’ message to Painter before facing Harris, who homered against him last Sunday night in Philadelphia: Be aggressive.

“After the Acuña home run, there was kind of a switch that flipped, and I got really competitive and aggressive in the zone,” Painter said. “It was kind of, ‘Keep the foot on the pedal.’ But I just fell behind.”

Indeed, Painter threw a curveball in the dirt and a fastball far outside. Painter had to come back with a heater, and Harris was waiting for it. Although it was low in the zone, Harris hit it over left fielder Brandon Marsh’s outstretched glove.

“I always think I have [a chance], but we were shaded a couple of steps,” Marsh said. “Maybe tip your cap. I had a good bead on it. Just a little too far over the glove. Definitely it’s a ball I think that I need to have, especially in a situation like that, but I didn’t get it and we’ve got to move on.”

Said Painter: “I think it was 105 [mph] off the bat. If it’s 105, I’m not really expecting the ball to be caught. ... If I make that pitch [in an] 0-0 [count], it’s probably a lot different. Just falling behind there puts us in a hole.”

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The Phillies paid for Painter’s mistake. But once again, the offense consisted only of home runs. They loaded the bases in the fourth inning and didn’t score. They stranded 11 runners.

And the defense didn’t help again either. With one out in the decisive sixth inning, Turner didn’t charge Dominic Smith’s slow roller. Second baseman Bryson Stott fielded the ball instead and had to throw across his body. Smith reached base to start the rally.

“I thought [Turner] kind of backed off,” Thomson said. “If he’d have played through it, we probably had a better shot to get him there at first.”

Add it all up, and the Phillies have only their fifth losing streak of at least 10 games since 1972.

There isn’t much more to say.

“We’ve got to look in the mirror and understand what our game is,” Harper said. “Each of us, individually, have got to understand what our game is and what makes our team tick. Guys can’t feel that they have to do more than what they’re capable of doing.

“Obviously there’s teams that have come back from where we’re at. We’ve just got to keep going, keep plugging.”

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