Andrew Painter pitched for the first time in 11 days Tuesday night in Indianapolis. The right-hander was able to make it through five innings, giving up two earned runs on seven hits and a walk with eight strikeouts in the game. The Lehigh Valley offense wasn’t much help and scored just one run in a 2-1 IronPigs loss to the Indians.
Painter was dominant through the first three innings, giving up a hit and a walk, and throwing a wild pitch while striking out six batters. In the fourth, he allowed a double and a single, but stranded both runners on the basepaths by getting two strikeouts and a fielder’s choice groundball to keep Indianapolis off of the scoreboard. In the fifth, Painter again allowed a double and a single and then recorded a popup for the first out of the inning. From there though, Indy got an RBI single from Ronny Simon and then a sacrifice fly from Emmanuel Valdez to score their two runs.
Where did the change-up go?
An interesting thing about Painter’s outing against Indianapolis is that he didn’t thrown any change-ups, at least not by what was reported by Statcast. Painter’s change-up is actually a split-change and it was his third most used pitch. One reason why it is so interesting is because after his last outing at Coca-Cola Park prior to the All-Star Break, Painter told reporters that he was working on some new things with the change-up.
“Yeah, that one (change-up) has been a big one for me in the past, but we’re trying to figure some things out with that; third change-up grip in four starts,” said Painter after facing the Columbus Clippers. “I didn’t have any feel for the change-up and it was just kind of coming out all over the place, so we took that out of the arsenal.”
Against the Clippers, Painter threw just three change-ups, all in the first inning and all out of the strike zone.
The fact that the Phillies had him using three different grips in four starts is scary. Keep in mind that two of those starts were with Lehigh Valley and were good outings where he allowed just two earned runs in six innings.
Tuesday’s pitch mix
Painter threw primarily four-seamers (41) and sweepers (32). He mixed in nine sinkers and five sliders. Of his eight strikeouts, five came on sweepers and the other four on the four-seam fastball. The sweeper was a big pitch for Painter, who got nine called strikes on the pitch which he kept between 81.8 mph and 83.8 mph. The four-seamer had its usual 97-98 mph velocity.
It’s worth mentioning that the first time through the order hitters were 1-for-8 (.125) against Painter. That went up to 4-for-9 (.444) in the second trip through the order and 2-for-4 (.500) the third time that hitters faced Painter.
Next time out
If Lehigh Valley keeps Painter on schedule, he would pitch Sunday’s series finale in Indianapolis. Painter is now 0-2, 5.60 in four starts with Lehigh Valley.
Please scroll down to comment on this story or to give it a rating. We appreciate your feedback!
Disclaimer: Some of the products featured or linked on this website may generate income for Philly Baseball News through affiliate commissions, sponsorships, or direct sales. We only promote items we believe in, but please assume that PBN may earn a cut from qualifying purchases that you make using a link on this site.
© 2026 LV Sports Media. All rights reserved.
