Andrew Painter did not dominate the Braves on Sunday afternoon.
He did something the Phillies needed almost as badly.
He kept the game from becoming another bullpen emergency.
After an 11-inning loss Friday and Saturday’s disastrous bullpen game following Jesús Luzardo’s shoulder-related scratch, Philadelphia entered Sunday needing somebody to restore a little order to its pitching staff.
Painter gave them five innings.
Alec Bohm eventually gave them the hit they had been waiting for all afternoon.
Together, it was enough for a 9-4 victory over Atlanta at Truist Park that prevented a sweep and sent the Phillies home five games behind the Braves in the National League East with 12 games remaining.
For most of the afternoon, however, the game looked like another missed opportunity.
The Phillies kept putting runners on base and repeatedly failed to cash them in. Four different leadoff hitters reached without scoring. They entered Bohm’s eighth-inning plate appearance just 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
Even the eighth seemed ready to disappear.
Kyle Schwarber opened it with a single, but Trea Turner followed with a ground ball that forced Schwarber at second. Bryce Harper then dropped his second double of the afternoon into open space near the right-field line, sending Turner to third.
Luis Arraez popped up on the first pitch.
Two outs.
Second and third.
Tie game.
And another scoring opportunity threatening to vanish.
This time, Bohm stopped it.
Facing left-hander Dylan Lee, Bohm drove a two-run double into the gap to score Turner and Harper and give Philadelphia a 4-2 lead. It was the hit the Phillies had spent most of the afternoon failing to produce.
Then everything changed.
Bryson Stott singled home Bohm. J.T. Realmuto added another RBI hit. Schwarber drove home two more, and Turner completed the seven-run inning with an RBI single.
The Phillies went from 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position before Bohm stepped in to 6-for-15 by the end of the afternoon.
A 2-2 game had suddenly become 9-2.
It was an offensive avalanche that looked almost impossible a few innings earlier.
But none of it mattered without Painter keeping Philadelphia close long enough to get there.
Atlanta scored in the first after Michael Harris II singled, Matt Olson followed with another hit and Drake Baldwin lifted a sacrifice fly. Realmuto answered in the second with a two-run homer, his 11th, to give the Phillies a 2-1 advantage.
Painter spent much of the afternoon pitching with traffic.
He allowed six hits and four walks and struck out three while throwing 87 pitches. His command was hardly pristine.
His biggest moment came in the fourth.
Harris singled. Painter walked Austin Riley and Ha-Seong Kim. The bases were loaded.
This was exactly the type of inning the Phillies could not afford to let unravel.
Another short outing would have sent Don Mattingly searching through a bullpen that had already absorbed a punishing weekend.
Painter instead retired Ronald Acuña Jr. on a popup and got Olson to ground out, stranding all three runners.
That escape may have been his most important work of the afternoon.
Painter returned for the fifth and finished his day with only one run allowed.
Five innings ordinarily do not qualify as saving a bullpen.
Context matters.
Friday required five Phillies relievers after Aaron Nola departed an 11-inning game. Saturday became a full-scale bullpen operation when Luzardo could not make his scheduled start. Tim Mayza gave Philadelphia three scoreless innings, but five relievers followed, and catcher Garrett Stubbs eventually had to pitch as Atlanta won 12-2.
Another abbreviated start Sunday could have created another afternoon of survival.
Painter prevented it.
Alex McFarlane handled the sixth. José Alvarado surrendered the tying run in the seventh when Harris singled, moved up on a wild pitch and scored on Olson’s single.
Then came Bohm.
And then came everybody else.
Philadelphia finished with 16 hits. Realmuto and Stott had three apiece. Schwarber, Turner, Harper and Bohm each had two.
The seven-run eighth also changed how Mattingly could finish the game.
Instead of asking Jhoan Duran, Brooks Raley, Chase Shugart, Orion Kerkering or another heavily used reliever to navigate another tight finish, Mattingly handed the final two innings to Tanner Banks, who had just been activated from the 60-day injured list.
Banks allowed Olson’s two-run homer in the ninth but finished it.
And now the Phillies have Monday off before beginning a two-game series in Washington on Tuesday.
Sunday did not erase what happened in Atlanta.
The Phillies lost two of three. They remain five games behind the Braves. Time is disappearing from the division race.
But for one afternoon, two things Philadelphia desperately needed finally arrived.
Bohm delivered the hit that had been missing.
Painter delivered the innings that mattered.
Sometimes saving a bullpen does not mean throwing eight.
After this weekend, five were enough.
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