Andrew Painter struck out eight in 5 1/3 innings in his major league debut as the Philadelphia Phillies topped the visiting Washington Nationals 3-2 on Tuesday.
The Phillies’ top pitching prospect, Painter (1-0), allowed one run, four hits and a walk against a Nationals team that entered the game leading the majors in runs scored. Kyle Schwarber and Adolis Garcia homered for the Phillies, who had lost three of their first four games.
Daylen Lile had three hits for Washington, which had won three of its first four contests. James Wood came up with the tying run on second with two outs in the ninth, but Brandon Marsh tracked down his liner to deep left for the final out.
Philadelphia scored a run in the third, fourth and fifth innings against Zack Littell to stake Painter to a 3-0 lead.
In the third inning, Schwarber hit a two-out homer off the facing of the second deck. In the following frame, Garcia hit an opposite-field home run — his first since joining the Phillies — to double the advantage. Then in the fourth, Justin Crawford singled with one out and came around to score on an error by Luis Garcia Jr.
Meanwhile, Painter was in control in his first MLB start. He retired Washington in order in the first inning and worked around back-to-back singles to open the second. After a smooth third inning, he gave up a one-out double to Lile in the fourth before recovering to strike out the next two batters.
Painter struck out three more in the fifth inning, prompting manager Rob Thomson to bring him back out for the sixth. He allowed a one-out single to CJ Abrams before leaving to a standing ovation.
Abrams scored shortly thereafter on Lile’s single, combined with a throwing error by Adolis Garcia.
The Nationals closed within 3-2 in the seventh on Wood’s two-out RBI double.
Brad Keller logged the eighth for Philadelphia before Jhoan Duran escaped the ninth for his second save.
After opener PJ Poulin pitched a scoreless first inning for Washington, Littell (0-1) worked five innings and gave up three runs, six hits and two walks.
