One Prominent Pitch Helping Phillies’ Andrew Painter

Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Andrew Painter is known for having a deep pitch mix and the ability to switch up his game plan on a moment's notice because of it, and his Grapefruit League outing has been no exception to that.

However, there is one pitch that specifically sets everything up and, in Painter’s words, elevates his entire game: the changeup.

In Painter’s latest start against the Baltimore Orioles, he pitched 2.2 innings, giving up three runs on five hits, but didn’t issue any walks and struck out four batters. Several of those strikeouts came on the changup.

In this outing alone, Painter threw the offspeed pitch only four times, but it generated two whiffs on three swings. It’s not about the quantity of how often Painter throws the changeup; it’s about the efficiency.

Painter said he was glad to establish the changeup early in his start because of what it can do for the rest of his mic. 

“I haven't really established [the changeup] early in the first two outings, but threw a couple to righties too, and it feels good,” said Painter after the outing.


“I feel comfortable throwing it to both sides. I feel good going right and right and that just kind of elevates a heater, too. 
Everything; it elevates a whole arsenal when I have that working.”

With how often Painter throws his fastball, he needs a pitch that can counter its velocity, which was topped out at nearly 98 mph on Friday.

While the changeup is turning into the prominent pitch in Painter’s mix, he also said that the rest of his arsenal still felt good when he was on the mound. 

Threw a couple of changes, a couple of sliders. I thought the sweeper was really good. Fastball was really good early,” explained Painter. 


“Like I said, that third inning below went down a little bit. Spraying in a little bit, but overall, I thought the stuff was good. I thought early on I was commanding it well. I was getting the head, uh, and counts, and, uh, things I went.”

Assuming that Painter is in Philadelphia’s rotation to start the year, it’ll be interesting to see how much he uses the changeup to set up the rest of his pitches. If the right-hander succeeds at that, Painter could be in for an impactful rookie season. 

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