Andrew Painter struggles in Phillies’ 6-3 loss to the Chicago White Sox
Brandon Marsh hit his second home run in as many days, and Alec Bohm also homered, but the Phillies’ offense otherwise fell flat, too.
The first pitch Andrew Painter threw on Saturday was a fastball that missed badly: high and inside to White Sox leadoff hitter Sam Antonacci.
It was a harbinger of things to come for Painter’s start, as he struggled significantly with his fastball command in the Phillies’ 6-3 loss to Chicago. He ultimately hit Antonacci with another mislocated fastball, and from there things started to spiral.
The first four batters Painter faced reached base — the hit by pitch, walk, single, walk — and all four ultimately scored. By the time he induced a flyout to end the inning, the Phillies were down, 4-0, and Painter had thrown 42 pitches.
“Tough way to start the game,” Painter said. “You’re really not giving yourself a chance. Just got to be better commanding the ball and just be a little more aggressive in the zone.”
Painter’s four-seam fastball, in particular, continued to be an issue. Out of the 15 he threw, only three were in the strike zone. And one of those wound up in the right-field seats after Colson Montgomery teed off on it in the third inning.
Painter’s four-seamer was one of his calling cards as a prospect, but this season, it has a 9.6% whiff rate and a 40% hard-hit rate.
Since he didn’t have a solid feel for the pitch, Painter and catcher J.T. Realmuto scaled back significantly on his fastball usage as the game went on. The first time through the White Sox order, Painter threw his four-seamer 26% of the time, the highest proportion of all six of his pitches.
The second and third time through the order, he threw his four-seamer just 8% of the time.
“Any pitch that’s not in the zone isn’t going to be very effective,” Painter said. “I was really depending on the splitter today. Splitter was pretty inconsistent too, the shape. Didn’t really know what it was going to do. Some were cutting, some were going straight down, so it was hard to command the ball.”
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Painter also left a splitter over the middle of the plate for White Sox rookie Jacob Gonzalez, who capitalized for his first career major league home run to extend the Phillies’ deficit to 6-0 in the third.
“The homers kind of hurt us,” interim manager Don Mattingly said. “We had it at four. If you keep it there, there was a lot of time left in the game at that point. If we can keep it at four, you feel like you got a chance to creep back into this thing.”
Painter finished 4⅔ innings and allowed eight hits and two walks. Tanner Banks inherited two runners from Painter in the fifth but induced a flyout to escape the jam.
“Tough start for him, but he finished strong and he knows what he needs to do,” Brandon Marsh said. “And he’s a professional. He’s going to work with it, and he’s going to overcome it.”
Meanwhile, the Phillies only had two hits through the first five innings, which included a solo homer from Alec Bohm that gave them a run back in the fourth. The White Sox used a left-handed opener Brandon Eisert in front of righty Sean Burke.
The Phillies threatened against Burke in the sixth. Marsh started the rally — which came entirely with two outs — with another solo home run. Realmuto and Bryson Stott then drew back-to-back walks before Adolis García drove in another run with a single.
“I’m just really trying to see something that makes me happy to swing, and really just trying to simplify the game,” said Marsh, who has hit homers in back-to-back games. He also doubled in the eighth.
With two runners on and the tying run at the plate in the sixth, White Sox manager Will Venable brought in lefty reliever Sean Newcomb to face Justin Crawford. Mattingly countered by pinch-hitting with Edmundo Sosa, but he struck out looking to end the inning.
Banks covered 2⅓ scoreless innings, while Tim Mayza and Chase Shugart pitched an inning apiece and kept the White Sox from adding to their lead.
“The bullpen did a nice job,” Mattingly said. “Banks and Mayza and Shug kind of kept giving us chances.”
But the Phillies’ offense fell flat. García, Sosa, and Kyle Schwarber struck out in the ninth to end the game.