What made Andrew Painter so dominant on Wednesday against Arizona?
The Phillies Postgame Live crew takes a closer look at Andrew Painter's seven scoreless innings against Arizona.
What made Andrew Painter so dominant on Wednesday against Arizona? originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Video Transcript
And it is Andrew Painter who inserts himself into an unbelievable starting rotation, and if you had to rank that rotation now, I don't know where you'd put this guy, Ruben, but he'd be up there, let me tell you that.
What a performance today.
But really spectacular.
I mean, you saw the just the one time where they had the, you know, base runner at second base, but his changeup was absolutely Nintendo-like.
It was like the Bugs Bunny changeup.
He throws 96, 97 miles an hour, but then that same arm action, he's taking that ball, taking off seven miles an hour on that changeup, and these guys had no chance against it.
Plus, he's a really good athlete.
You see this play here, I always err on the side of the guys who are great athletes.
This guy can make some plays himself as well.
The breaking ball was excellent, had a bunch of, swings and misses on that as well.
But that changeup was absolutely electric.
He was throwing against righties, he was throwing against lefties, and he has a lot of confidence in that pitch right now.
It was a pitch he didn't even have in the beginning of the season.
Yeah.
Look at his last seven starts- Wow since being recalled at the beginning of May.
40-plus innings pitched, his ERA is 3.12.
His overall ERA is down to just above five, but the 3.12, it's what have you done for me lately?
That's it.
The whip is below one, well below one.
That is awesome.
And 38 strikeouts, 13 walks, zero earned runs, two hits allowed in seven innings.
We have this from our Cole Weintraub from nbcsportsphiladelphia.com.
"Andrew Painter is the fourth Phillies pitcher age 23 or younger since 1913 to throw at least seven scoreless while allowing two hits or fewer and no walks."
Two of them are Curt Simmons and Art Mahaffey, pretty darn good starters.
Pre- pretty special, and I mean, this kid, again, he's been famous for a long time, and the expectation was so high on the guy.
When he got hurt, it really did change his trajectory in a huge way.
That Tommy John was, was big for him, and I think it's gotten to the point now where he is feeling confident enough in his arm that he is cutting it loose.
He's throwing that fastball with tremendous extension now.
He's throwing his changeup with a, a, a ton of confidence, and the breaking ball has always gon- been good.
He's always been able to spin the breaking ball.
But now he's throwing it for strikes, and, I, the sky's the limit on, on this guy's stuff because he can throw five or six pitches for strikes.
I, I love what I saw today.
It was a situation where, you know, there's an, some pressure on the guy because the last few times, you know, listen, these are important games now.
And, and, and, and young players start to feel it at this time.
It's in, we're in September.
We're in a pennant race, and he's pitching against a team that is a contender, and he pitched absolutely lights out.
I love what I saw.
