The Phillies need innings.
They need six, preferably. Seven would feel like a gift.
Because after another exhausting weekend for a bullpen that has spent much of the summer operating somewhere between overworked and unreliable, the last thing Philadelphia needs in the opener of a significant three-game series at Busch Stadium is another early call to the bullpen.
Painter will make his third start since returning from Triple-A when the Phillies open the series against St. Louis at 7:45 p.m. He enters 1-8 with a 6.48 ERA and will oppose right-hander Hunter Dobbins, who is 2-2 with a 3.60 ERA.
Painter understands the assignment.
“My job is to go and eat innings and take that off the bullpen,” Painter said last week,
That outing lasted only four innings, not because Painter was ineffective, but because left hamstring tightness forced the Phillies to remove him from Wednesday’s loss to Washington. Painter threw his normal bullpen session Saturday and remained on schedule to make Monday’s start.
The encouraging part is that Painter has looked considerably more like the pitcher the Phillies hoped they would see when they recalled him.
He allowed two runs over six innings July 31 in Baltimore, retiring 17 of the final 21 hitters he faced after allowing a two-run homer in the first inning. He was again pitching effectively against Washington before the hamstring tightened. It is a small sample, but after Painter posted a 7.06 ERA through his first 14 big-league appearances and spent several weeks rebuilding at Lehigh Valley, there finally have been signs of progress.
The Phillies need that progress to continue now.
Their bullpen surrendered multi-run leads in the eighth inning on both Saturday and Sunday against Toronto. Orion Kerkering pitched Sunday for the fourth time in five days and sixth time in eight. Jonathan Bowlan and José Alvarado had each worked three of the previous four days. Jhoan Duran worked for the fourth time in five days. Even after Jesús Luzardo supplied seven innings Sunday, Philadelphia still needed five relievers to survive a 12-inning, 7-6 victory.
And the group lost another arm in the process.
Caleb Kilian, acquired from San Francisco at the trade deadline along with Luis Arraez, was placed on the 15-day injured list Monday with a left oblique strain after leaving Sunday’s game following his final pitch. The Phillies recalled Chase Shugart from Triple-A Lehigh Valley to replace him — one day after Shugart had been optioned.
So Painter giving the Phillies length Monday is not simply preferable. It could influence how interim manager Don Mattingly navigates the entire series.
Philadelphia has a substantial pitching advantage on paper after Monday. Cristopher Sánchez, 15-4 with a 2.65 ERA, faces Andre Pallante on Tuesday. Zack Wheeler, 10-3 with a 2.69 ERA, gets Kyle Leahy in Wednesday afternoon’s finale.
But those advantages become less meaningful if the Phillies enter those games with a bullpen already running on fumes.
And this is not a series Philadelphia can afford to treat casually.
The Phillies enter Monday 63-56 and holding the third National League wild-card position, tied with Arizona. San Diego sits only one game behind Philadelphia, while Miami is three games back. St. Louis enters 59-59, just 3½ games behind the Phillies.
That makes every result this week matter twice — once in Philadelphia’s column and once in the Cardinals’.
A Phillies sweep would push St. Louis 6½ games behind them. A Cardinals sweep would shrink Philadelphia’s advantage over St. Louis to only a half-game. Even a simple two-of-three series win would allow the Phillies to leave Missouri with a 4½-game cushion over the Cardinals.
There is another wrinkle: these teams meet again Aug. 21-23 at Citizens Bank Park, and the winner of the season series would own the head-to-head postseason tiebreaker if they finish with identical records.
Neither club has exactly stormed through the second half. Philadelphia is 9-13 since the All-Star break; St. Louis is 9-14. But the Cardinals’ offense has started to stir, scoring 37 runs over its last seven games with JJ Wetherholt, Iván Herrera, Alec Burleson and Jordan Walker forming the dangerous core of the lineup. Philadelphia has received its own offensive jolt lately from Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber, who broke a 17-game home run drought by going deep twice Sunday.
The Phillies have spent months climbing out of the hole created by their disastrous April. They finally occupy a playoff position, but there remains little separation between holding that spot and falling back into the pack.
That is what makes the next three days important.
And it makes Painter’s first inning Monday even more important than usual.
The Phillies do not need him to look like an ace.
They need him to look like a starting pitcher who can hand Mattingly the baseball in the seventh inning.
Right now, that might be every bit as valuable.
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