Andrew Painter pitched a career-high seven innings and Bryce Harper hit a three-run homer to fuel the Philadelphia Phillies to their eighth straight win — a 12-3 victory over the visiting St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday.
Painter (3-8), who has struggled for most of his rookie season, allowed one run and five hits without a walk, striking out eight. While Harper provided the big blast, Philadelphia also received two RBIs apiece from Kyle Schwarber, Edmundo Sosa and Bryan De La Cruz.
J.J. Wetherholt’s 17th home run was one of the few highlights for the Cardinals. Quinn Mathews (0-2) was charged with seven runs and 10 hits in five innings for St. Louis, which needs to win Sunday to avoid a sweep and falling back to .500 on the season.
Philadelphia didn’t waste much time against Mathews in the bottom of the first. Schwarber drew a leadoff walk and Trea Turner singled before the St. Louis left-hander recorded the first two outs. However, Alec Bohm – the walk-off hero in Friday’s contest – came through with an RBI single to left. Two pitches later, Sosa delivered a two-run double to make it 3-0.
Mathews pitched around a pair of singles in the second inning, but he wasn’t so fortunate in the third. In that frame, the Phillies reached on four consecutive singles, capped by De La Cruz’s two-run hit that made it 5-0.
The next hitter was J.T. Realmuto, who delivered a sacrifice fly before Derek Hill’s RBI double pushed the advantage to 7-0.
Painter retired the Cardinals in order in four of the first five innings. He held the visitors scoreless until the sixth, when Blaze Jordan led off with a double and came around to score on Alec Burleson’s single.
Harper’s three-run homer off Ryan Fernandez highlighted a four-run sixth for Philadelphia as the hosts opened a commanding 11-1 lead.
Painter then came back out for the seventh and worked around a single and an error, ending his night after 103 pitches.
Wetherholt and Schwarber exchanged solo homers in the eighth.
The Cardinals plated one more run in the ninth as Nathan Church had a one-out triple and came in to score on Jose Fermin’s groundout.
