Thursday, October 1, 2026
79 ° Clear
79 ° Clear
PHILADELPHIA – After a disastrous eleventh inning Wednesday night which saw both Andrew Painter and Derek Hill forced to leave the game due to injuries, the Phillies received good news regarding their injury status.
Interim manager Don Mattingly expects Painter (left hamstring soreness) to make his next start and Hill (shoulder contusion) to potentially be available in the series finale against the Washington Nationals when the NL East divisional rivals square off later tonight at 6:05.
“He [Painter] feels pretty good, had imaging this morning and it came back good,” Mattingly said. “I expect him to make his next start at this point unless something would go funky.”
“It’s kind of a sigh of relief that you’re not searching for that starter every fifth day. Everything last night could have been a lot worse … it all could have been bad, but it came out good.”
After violently slamming into the centerfield wall in the eleventh inning, Hill also avoided major injury.
“Derek went through all the protocol he had to go through. He feels like he probably should after running into a wall. He’ll go through some hitting and movements and if he’s good he will be ready to go tonight,” Mattingly said of the outfielder.
Bryce Harper, who got his hand stuck on what Mattingly described as a “spongy” playing surface, is also good to go.
A lot has been made about the Phillies deciding to make multiple changes across the infield and moving Harper to right field to appease newly added Luis Arraez, who up until this season, graded out below average defensively.
However, Mattingly is not concerned about it, entrusting Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott to man their new positions without many hiccups because of their past experience playing at their new positions.
“Harper is the key to that,” Mattingly said. “Getting him into shape for the outfield and accustomed to the outfield and feeling like an outfielder. Bohm and Stott I don’t worry about at all, they both played those positions, they are both good at them. It’s probably more Harper I’m worried about.”
Bohm enters Thursday having played in 138 total games at first base, but outside of the six this season, he has only played in 28 in 2024 and 2025 combined. Stott on the other hand, has only played 12 career games at the hot corner since becoming a pro, with four of them in the big leagues and half of those coming in the last two games post trade deadline.
The Phillies are easing Harper in right field. Mattingly believes that his star getting acclimated again to a position of old is the key to having the best defensive alignment.
The Phillies are well below average in defensive efficiency at .674, only ahead of the Colorado Rockies. They have the seventh fewest defensive runs saved at -27 and a league average .985 fielding percentage.
The Phillies need their star slugging designated hitter to get out of the elongated skid that he’s in.
Since the start of July, the All-Star has a .194/.342/.323 slash line with a .664 OPS and only three home runs. He is also hitless in each of the last six games (0-for-17) with 11 strikeouts.
Despite that, the Phillies are 4-2 over those six games, but since July 1 they are 13-16.
