High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - Final Out: Phillies Offense Stalls In 3-1 Loss

Episode Date: May 14, 2026

Jack Fritz reacts to the Phillies' 3-1 loss in Boston on Wednesday night. Andrew Painter threw five solid innings and Justin Crawford hit a home run, but the rest of the offense went cold. Presented by Miller Lite. To purchase Ring The Bell by Jack Fritz and Kevin Reavy go to RingTheBellBook.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Jack Fritz hanging out with you here on this Wednesday night as we react to a 3-1-fills loss up in. Boston tonight. The final out, as always, is sponsored by the Philadelphia Parking Authority, offering Valet Park at P.HL Airport, the Philly Airport. 3-1-Fills lose offense.

Bit of a no-show. Bit of a no-show. Got kind of intriguing there in the ninth. Tray Works a Walk. Schwabbs, heads up, knew that, that, you know, Chapman was essentially a one-look guy, got his timing down.

and in Durbin didn't make a play. There was a bummer that bummer wasn't able to come through. O'Lis Chapman's been really resurgent in these last two years in Boston has taken his game to another level. So he's been really, really tough to hit. Boom just missed one. Harper had a pitch to hit that he just missed. And against a guy like O'Rillus Chapman, he's going to make you pay.

But it's still cool. I mean, seeing Schwabreve with the double seal, heads up baseball, little things, that kind of stuff does matter. and it was a bomber that that bomber was not able to come through. The game wrap up is sponsored by Roto Router when plumbing problems hit, wrap them up quick and call Roto Router. Their team tackles, clogs, and leaks so you can stay in the game, Roto Router, your MVP for plumbing solutions. 215-5-92. 94 is how you get in to react to this one.

Obviously, if you were in Boston, we'd love to hear from you. But if you watch this game on the couch like I did, definitely interested in your thoughts on this one. 215-5-92-94 to get in. The biggest takeaways of the game are brought to you by Morgan and Morgan America's largest injury law firm. And tonight, what really mattered was Andrew Painter. We'll get to the offense. Obviously, we have some thoughts on the offense. At this point, it's kind of who they are. If you have you, if you have this dreams and aspirations that this offense is going to turn into a juggernaut, I think you're, mistaken, there are going to be nights when they're going to struggle.

But Andrew Painter, doing what he did tonight, not getting blasted, actually pitching, that was much, much needed, much needed. We don't need this turning into a Taiwan situation where every fifth day, you go out there or the hope that, well, I mean, you go out there just almost covering your eyes and just praying that they can get through, like, the fourth inning. That was not Andrew Painter tonight. Now, I will say early in the game, first three innings, a lot of hard contact.

Some of it right at people. Trevor Story, believe it or not, did not miss a 95-mile-an-hour fastball right down the middle. He made Andrew Painter pay for that. But I think his last two innings showed signs of life for Painter and maybe a signs of a new pitch mix. Overall, I thought his command all night was pretty good. And that's obviously the thing that he needs the most.

Andrew Pinter needs his command to be there. He's a little nibbley for me. He just kind of stays around the strike zone. When he misses, he misses out of the strike zone, but just kind of barely. I think a mindset of aggressive and attack and downhill and throw through the catcher, not to the catcher, would really go a long way. way with Andrew Painter because I think sometimes he's just trying to be too fine. And I think he is learning how to pitch at the big league level.

There's going to be growing pains this year. That's what the majority of this season has been. There's good stuff there. The fastball is disappointing. You know, everyone talks about, you know, the stuff's great, the stuff's great, the stuff's great. The fastball's not. It can be 97, 98. And I think in the olden terms, you would say, that's a great fastball.

But it's not. It's not a great fastball. It gets smoked. And, you know, tonight, I don't know what adjustments they made command-wise, but I thought his command looked better tonight. And that is big for him. He needs that because if he can have command of his pitches, it first keeps guys off of his fastball,

but it allows him to get to his secondaries. And tonight he did a much, much, much better job of getting in advantage counts, rather than it being 2-1 all the time or 3-1 all the time, which it felt like it's been the last couple of outings, way more 1-2 counts. Like that kind of stuff is so, so key for me. He also did a good job of limiting foul balls, which feels like it's something that they can't totally control.

But instead of just getting foul ball to death and have that pitch count rise, he was much more efficient within the strike zone tonight. So it was encouraging. So the command was good tonight, which is really important for him. And the other thing that I thought was interesting is his usage on his 14thal is down 14%. So heading into the start tonight, the usage on that pitch was 38%. And tonight it was 24%.

So that's a pretty big drop off for Andrew Painter. and rightfully so. It's a bad pitch. I don't care how hard he throws it. It's flat and it gets smoked. So much like Lazzardo, who has a fastball that they have to hide, that's a pitch that they're going to have to use as a type of pitch that can sneak on hitters. That you have to, Yamamoto with Dodgers, he doesn't have a great fastball,

but he's able to use all of his other pitches to where he can. sneak the fastball past hitters up in the zone and they're not sitting on it and smoking it. When he's falling behind 213-1, hitters can just sit that red and they're not missing it. So by being able to go up one-two and then, hey, maybe here's a split, or here's a curveball, or here's a slider, or here's a sweeper. He actually didn't throw that many curveballs tonight. It was mostly sweeper-slider. Here's a slider.

Here's a sweeper. And then there's 97 up, that's how he has to pick. That is how Andrew Painter has to pitch. He has to use all of his other stuff and use the fastball as a pitch that he can sneak by guys. And the secondaries are pretty good. They don't jump off the screen at you. You watch modern baseball now. You see all these disgusting sweepers and splinters that fall off the table and hammer sliders.

And Painter doesn't have that, but he has a lot of, I would say, good pitchers. pitches. I don't think there are a bunch of average pitches. I think he has a bunch of good pitches. I don't think he has a great pitch. And this, I've talked about this a lot with Painter. What made him a special prospect is he had a great fastball. Pre-Tombollah John surgery, Andrew Painter had like a hundred mile an hour, well, it was 97 to 100 with 2,500 RPMs on his spin rate. Tonight is average fastball, and it was like 17 inches of enhanced vertical break. His fastball on night was like 2,200 RPM, and it's more in the 96 to 97 range. And the enhanced vertical break on it, I believe, was 14.

So, yeah, it's, that's the pitch that is, that if it doesn't come back, you are limiting the ceiling for Andrew Painter. But at least for tonight, and after the first three innings, we saw a guy maybe changing up his pitch mix, having better command. and grinding his way through a start. I had no problems with Don Maddenly pulling him from that game. It was about to be the heart of the Red Sox order for the third time. He is a kid.

He is 23 going through the big leagues for the first time. There's no need to try to push him in that instance. Get him out of there. Have him feel good about himself. Have some wind at the back of his sails heading into his next start. And maybe let's get on a roll here. So it didn't work out. Banks came in and wasn't great, and then Kirkland allowed the blast to Raphaelah.

And that was the ball game. But I did not have a problem with Donna Madeline's decision there. That was a good time to get him out of that ballgame. And then the other takeaway is just the offense. I mean, the offense is incredibly annoying. But there has been signs of life for them over the last couple of weeks. They faced Sunny Gray tonight, who is a veteran pitcher. he was on. He hadn't had great strikeout numbers heading into this game, but he kept them off balance

all night, and, you know, they, they didn't do enough offensively. And no Trey, I don't know how much that helped her. It was going to see him work that walk off of Chapman. But I guess I'm just resigned to the feeling of, I try not to get too high and try not to get too low with the offense because it's who they've been for three years. They're a high. hot and cold offense. And in nights like tonight, it felt like they were waiting around for, Harper and Schwarber to do something.

So overall, I'm not, like, surprised by the offense, but it is certainly disappointing. Dave is in there. What's happening, Dave? I just say, you know, one of those nights where you just can't get anything going, I thought Kirkering just a bad fit selection there,

trying to sneak a fastball rather than, you know, going low and away with the kids. But I thought Painter looked, you know, like I think you just described, if you can get that out of them and, you know, hopefully it keeps progressing off to the surgery. That's good. I thought Brad Keller, you know, had a good ending tonight. And, you know, hopefully, you know, they can build on the pitching performance tonight from those two guys. And then, yeah, I think tomorrow will get rained out and hopefully not.

But, you know, if it does, you know, split there and come back with. in year for one. So all in all, one loss, not a big deal, but they just need to. Garcia has been a little bit of disappointment the last couple, about last week or so. Yeah. He just, not aggressive. He's taking a lot of pitches, take, you know, the Phillies, I don't, they haven't,

they don't use the challenge well late. I mean, he should have used a challenge there against Garcia or against Chapman. And, you know, they had two last. in the ninth inning, try to get yourself in a better count, and, you know, they're not doing that. And then J.T. looked really old running the first base on that, on that drum ball. I mean, J.T. beats that out when he was, when he could run well. And I was shocked that he didn't get there tonight. Well, yeah. I mean, Trevor's story, they may look like a gold glover tonight.

I follow a good amount of Red Sox people, and they can't stand watching that guy play shortstop. Tonight, he looked like, you know, Jeter with some of those jump throws. I was shocked. Yes. But to tomorrow. We'll talk you. All right. There he goes.

Dave in Maryland. On the other side, we will get to the player of the game and some other things that kind of stuck out to me tonight. It's one of the problems with Dave. It takes a lot of my talking points in the open. It takes a lot of my talking points, but it's all good. I love Dave in Maryland. Coming up next here on the final out on Sports Radio 94WIPA. Visit BetMGM casino and check out the newest exclusive.

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Reacting to a clunker up in Boston for the offense, for the offense. And I guess a Ryan Kirkray. The player of the game tonight is brought to you by South Jersey Gas. Make the smart play save energy and money with South Jersey Gas at SJG SaveEnergy.com. And I'll give it to Sunny Gray, who look like. like vintage sunny gray tonight. You know, spinning the baseball all over the place, keeping the Phillies off balance.

He was not striking out. I think he had 20 strikeouts and 37 innings this year. And he struck out six. It was a season high. Only through 78 pitches. And Red Sox bullpins pretty good. Going from, like, Slayton Whitlock Chapman's a pretty good three when they have the lead.

So the Phillies certainly had their work cut out for them tonight. I'll get to some other thoughts on the game tonight after we talked to Rachel in Florida. What's happening, Rachel? Hey, Jack. It's pretty cool to be on here. Oh, I appreciate you, Colin. How's going?

Listen, a few weeks ago, when everything was in despair, you were talking about what it's like to be a casual fan. And I can say, you know, I was a casual fan. And, you know, last four years tuning in for the playoffs. How fun. And, oh, no, we lost. And I'm watching, you know, every game, regardless of what time and where.

And it's a hard season to come. come into that. Now, I wanted to talk tonight. Look, I'm 23. I can only imagine somebody like Painter and Crawford getting up there in front of tens of thousands of people. The last night you said, somebody had asked, you know, would Painter ever do come in the second inning, kind of go through five or six innings? I think he looked great and I think as a young rookie, he's, you know, he's going to the trials and tribulations of what it's like to be in the majors. But I wanted to ask you your thoughts. We've seen Dumbowski. You know, I know his history with the Red Sox, and it was, you know,

he's kind of run it back and get the veterans with the trade and the way this team is looking. We talked about, you know, JT, how he was running tonight and he's on a three-year contract. What do you think that's looking like? Like the JT contract now and going forward? No, like some trades that could be happening in the next, you know, a few months before this deadline. Do we think we think we're going to run it back? Do we think we're going to get some veterans? I mean, I would love to see some fresh faces, some younger guys.

it's rebuilding with this whole, you know, contract that's ending in the end of the year? What are your thoughts? Sure. I appreciate the phone call, Rachel. Yeah, the deadline is going to be really, really tricky. Because with the way they're playing, it seems like they're going to be in it.

And the question is, you know, how many games, hopefully, this is obviously projecting, but like how many games over 500 are they? Are they pretty secure in a wildcard spot to where you feel like, okay, yeah, let's push. a little bit more chips in and really give this team a shot in the arm to go get it done. What's interesting about them this year is, again, they're pretty locked in. I would find it very hard to believe that they would be in a situation where they would move

off Alec Bohm. I mean, maybe he's continuing to hit the way that he is and they don't have a choice and maybe they find some third base upgrade. I don't even want to speak it into existence because I would be furious, but when you see the report from Nightingale the other day about the Giants ready to sell everyone, the first name that came to my mind was Matt Chapman, who, now he does have $125 million left, but obviously the third base defense is legit. He'll take his walks and has some power, so he was the first name. I was like, oh, that screams Dumbrowski. But, you know, like second base, maybe, but I do think Stott is showing some signs of life.

But again, are they going to move off these guys while theoretically being in a playoff run? I think the only way that you get a sell-off or a, I don't know if they wouldn't fully sell-off because I don't know what they would have to do that, it would be, you know, some pieces here and there, but they would say it's a retool versus a complete teardown. They're not going to rebuild, especially with the contracts they just gave out. And with Harper and it's just not, it's not in the cards. So, you know, deadline is Marsh still hitting lefties like he is now, or do they need to go get a real platoon bat there? I mean, Felix for ASP still being up here is almost the upset of the century.

So, yeah, maybe a real right-handed hitting option that has experienced doing that before. If the Mariners don't get in this thing, I'll, you know, talk about it until the cows come home. but Robbie Rapp Snyder is inevitable, who I want the Phillies to go get at the trade deadline. Maybe Adolese, if he is hitting like he is now, if there's a possibility to go get some kind of outfit. I mean, Trouts the name that people are going to talk about a lot. He is having a good year. He's looking healthy. He would obviously fit what they need, which is a real right-handed bat in the lineup.

but I guess I've just had the mindset of wake me up when Trout actually asks out. We're kind of wasting our breath. Now, maybe the debut or the opening of Trout National makes him want to stay closer so that he can host people down there and things like that. But, you know, Trout's probably the big name. But, yeah, I mean, they're kind of set. Now, there is some, on the minor league side, there's some guys that are popping that I think would be useful trade chips so they don't want to keep them around. So it's not looking barren down there. But yeah, it's going to be a really important next about month and a half. And they're going to have to assess where they're at and how much they

want to invest in this team and keep pushing the luxury tax threshold that they're already they're already up against tax wise and are being taxed pretty heavily for every dollar. They continue to go over the luxury tax threshold that they are at. So a couple other things for the night. It was a good Keller outing. That was good to see, you know, through strikes, got a couple strikeouts. And maybe it was just not coming into a match in Dragons. And realizing how corny and dorky that is, that is walk-in song is,

I do whatever it's a... Come on, man. Come on, come on. No one's getting fired up. The energy in the ballpark is zapped when Brad Keller's walk-up song or walk-in song gets going. And the other team actually parks up a little bit. So, but he looked, he looked good tonight. He didn't throw the, he threw like one of those nonsense, 94-mount-hour change-ups that don't touch the strike zone.

He was efficient. He was in the zone with his fastball. There were some good sweepers. So that was very important to see. Crawford, haven't mentioned his home run yet. That was, that was really a positive sign. He, from the looks of it, is looking to, you know, back-legged the baseball a little bit, get behind the baseball. look to drive the baseball.

He's not just looking for infield hits. He's not trying to hit his unethical nonsense hits. Looks like he's actually much like Stott looking to get behind the baseball and drive it. And that was an encouraging, encouraging home run tonight. He's not Ben Revere. Ben Revere was a nonsense, empty 300 hitter. We knew that watching him. empty 300.

Crawford's not that. First off, he has more raw power. He 100% has more raw power. And he has a knack. He has a... Offensively, I do believe he is a winning player. I like him in a lineup batting 7 through 9. Defensively, not a winning player.

He had a diving catch tonight that I'm not sure how to be a diving catch. And then just a horrible read. in, what was that, like the eighth, seventh, where he really struggles with a line drive right at him. And he started breaking back on it. And yeah, his reads are very, very poor. He is a poor defensive centerfielder. But with the growing pains of Painter, there was always going to be growing pains with Crawford out there. And it's one of those things that we almost got to just, we just got to suck it up and watch him out there.

there's because you hope he can figure it out and can can man that position for a long time. But so far it's certainly been more of a work in progress for Justin Crawford out there. And then, yeah, Dolies is struggling like Dave mentioned. O for his last 12. You know, I thought the Rocky series he was doing a good job of hitting the ball hard. And now it seems like pitchers are able to get back at his kitchen a little bit. And he's not doing a great job of making a pay or pulling the ball a lot more. those fastball up. He's late. Pop-ups to first base recently for Adoli. So hopefully you can get back

to hitting the ball hard at least, but it's been a discouraging last three games for Adoles Garcia. 215-592-94-94. The final segment of the final out is coming on next. We will give a look ahead to tomorrow that might not happen and the wow moment of the game. All that's coming up next here on the final out on Sports Radio 94 WIPA. Yeah, at Desjardin Insurance, we know that when you own a nail salon, everything needs to be perfect from tip to toe. That's why our agents go the extra mile to understand your business and provide tailored solutions for all its unique needs. You put your heart into your company, so we put our heart into making sure it's protected. Get insurance that's really big on care.

Find an agent today at Dejardin.com slash business coverage. Yeah, that was a bummer, and that was a bummer. our wow moment of the game brought to you by the new jersey division of travel and tourism from waterfalls to fairways mountain resorts to lighthouse tours find your wow at visit nj com kirkering comes in and it's a huge bummer that's the first run he's allowed since april 17th he's looked he's looked really good i hope that is not i wouldn't jump off the kirkering bandwagon and if you've been on it this year because of that. It was a bad one-two pitch.

He tried to go up and out of the zone. He missed a spot. He has done a better job with inherited runners this year. Last year and two years ago, totally fair was horrendous. Just dreadful with inherited runners. This year hasn't been. I still think that there's been a different level of toughness. I do think what happened in L.A. could be a blessing in disguise for him

and how horrible that was and how he's learning to over- comment and it's been more good than bad for Orion Kirkring this year. I do not view tonight as, oh, here comes Kirkering falling apart. I just don't. Even right after that, it was a cheapy hit up the middle. He's going to be fine. I think he's going to be fine. I think he's taking a step up maturity this year. He has a look of toughness on the mound this year that he's not shown in years past. The next test really is he's had great. He's had great. He's had great. He's at great regular seasons as a Phillies reliever. The next test for him is having some postseason moments, because that's been the times that have

been the most disappointing is great regular seasons that have not translated over to the postseason. This is the final out, which is brought to you by the Philadelphia Parking Authority. Jackford's hanging out with you on this Wednesday night. Last segment here before handing things off to Broads, who will take you through the rest of the night. Hopefully, maybe I'll have to ventmo on. Maybe I'll, how much would I have to venmo him to not talk about the Phillies tonight? Because Sixers Flyers, I'll even take his Jalen nonsense. He can do his little Jalen thing.

The Phillies, that's where he loses me. We'll have to negotiate how much I can Venmo him to not talk about the Phillies tonight. Tomorrow it is going to be Ranger versus Lazzardo, if it happens. It looks like it's going to rain off and on all day. There might be a pocket around nine. So hopefully Murph gets a good night's sleep because it seems like he's probably going to have to take phone calls tomorrow. Or it's just going to get bagged. And that would really stink.

So we'll see what happens. It is supposed to be Ranger versus Lazzardo, which I think would be a really fun matchup for everyone, Ranger versus old team. I did the first. I want, I think Turner could definitely. do this. I want the first batter to hit a weak ground ball back to the Ranger and watching field and stuff like that. Speaking of that, if you are looking for a place to watch the game, we are at, for the highest podcast, we are at Garage and Rittenhouse. So I believe it's, if the game happens or not, like if it doesn't happen, then we'll just hang out. And we'll talk some

fills and it'll be a good time. If the game happens, great. We'll be hanging out, watching it, enjoying Miller Lights playing Phillies trivia for Phil's tickets, and it'll be a good time. So come on out to Garage Rittenhouse tomorrow and enjoy the ballgame, hopefully, or if not, just hang out and have a few, and we'll probably still give away those Phillies tickets for sure. So that's going to do it for me. Brods is next. He'll take you through the rest of the night here on Sports Radio 94WIPA.