MINNEAPOLIS — Andrew Painter threw six balls to begin his start here Sunday. Upon finally landing a pitch in the strike zone, he received a derisive cheer.
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So much for “Minnesota nice.”
Come to think of it, there was a sizable delegation of traveling Phillies fans in town for the weekend. For five innings, a stray strike from Painter was all there was to provoke their applause.
But a funny thing happened along the way to a series-finale egg-laying. The Phillies rallied from an early five-run deficit to pull ahead in the eighth inning of a 7-5 victory to complete a three-game, two-state sweep of the Twins.
“We’ve been able to come back, and our bats have been good,” interim manager Don Mattingly said after the Phillies inched ahead of the Diamondbacks and back into sole possession of a wild card. “Up and down [the lineup], as long as we stay with it and start getting guys out there, you’ve got a chance to break through.”
For the record, Alec Bohm bashed a three-run homer in the sixth inning to draw the Phillies within 5-4, then dropped a fly ball inside the right-field line for a game-tying single in the eighth.
But it was reserve outfielder Bryan De La Cruz, in only his third at-bat in eight days, who broke the tie by punching a two-run single through the right side.
“I understand that’s my role, and I just have to take advantage of the opportunities that I get, seize the moment, and just keep going,” De La Cruz said through a team interpreter. “I know that maybe I haven’t earned a spot every day here, but that’s what I have to do, just try to come through on the spots that the team needs me to.”
Jhoan Duran survived a 33-pitch tightrope walk in the ninth inning of his first appearance in Minnesota since getting traded by the Twins 382 days earlier. But the Phillies jetted home on the fuel of three consecutive wins over 243 miles from the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa, to the Twin Cities.
They also took Painter off the hook for a rough start.
Seeking to build off 5⅓ solid innings earlier in the week in St. Louis, Painter loaded the bases with two out in the first inning on back-to-back singles and a walk. He gave up a long, loud foul ball to Brooks Lee and hung a slider on the ensuing pitch for a grand slam.
“That’s where I’m trying to bury it, especially ahead in the count,” Painter said. “I believe it’s 1-2. You have room to play around there, so you’ve got to be able to execute that. That’s got to be a ball down. We’re trying to get chase there. Just left it up.”
Chalk it up as another lesson in a season full of them for the 23-year-old rookie.
Painter hit the next batter, Luke Keaschall, on the bill of his batting helmet with a first-pitch fastball. Not a great look, but considering Painter’s lack of command, in keeping with the rest of the first inning.
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Even so, the umpires conferred behind the mound and issued warnings to both teams, a decision that irritated Twins manager Derek Shelton.
“I’m not trying to go up and in with that,” said Painter, who has a 6.43 ERA through 18 games (16 starts). “I’m just trying to rip that through the zone and be really aggressive with the fastball there. It kind of just got away from me a little bit. Just got to be able to bounce back.”
Painter allowed a solo homer to Kody Clemens in the third inning, but otherwise, he froze the scoreboard to enable the Phillies to mount their second-largest comeback of the season. They overcame a six-run deficit on May 15 in Pittsburgh.
“I’m really happy with the way [Painter] responded after that because him getting through five is huge today,” Mattingly said. “He gives up the solo, but hung in there and kept going. That was huge.”
Through five innings, the Phillies not only trailed 5-0 but had three hits. The third time through the order against Twins starter Dean Kremer was different. They loaded the bases on two walks and a single before breaking through on Luis Arraez’s groundout and Bohm’s three-run homer.
It set the stage for the eighth-inning, which began with Bryce Harper’s one-out single and a double by Arraez before Bohm’s game-tying bloop and De La Cruz’s go-ahead single gave the traveling Phillies fans something real to cheer about.
“I’ve got to be better from the jump,” Painter said. “I’ve got to be in zone more. Obviously I put the team in a really tough spot. But really good job by the guys to come back and battle like that.”
Tony Gwynn Jr. is a former major league outfielder and son of late Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn. Over the last two years, he got to know new Phillies second baseman Luis Arraez, whose contact skills at the plate often draw comparisons to Gwynn. Tony Jr. joined Phillies Extra to discuss his father, Arraez, and the bonds that connect them. Watch here.
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