Another Great Outing from Phillies' Painter

This is a very pro-Andrew Painter newsletter, which we know you have already discerned.

This is also a generally pro-Sixers newsletter, except for times like now where the team is clearly not even trying to win.

In other news, Penn State is very, very invested in this weekend’s home game against Big Ten rival Ohio State.

So Happy Halloween, pilgrims.

In the email today:

• 🔥 Another Great Outing from Andy Painter

• 🧟 Zombie Sixers Get Rinsed by Pistons at Home

• 🟦 Penn State Is Seizing Its Moment

  • 📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

  • 📊 Poll

  • 🔗 Links

  • 📺 Coming Up

Andy Painter threw three scoreless innings in an Arizona Fall League (AFL) start on Wednesday. If that sounds familiar, it's because he threw three scoreless innings in his AFL start last week.

Painter's line: 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, 33 pitches (25 strikes). His fastball has touched at least 99 mph in each of his four AFL outings.

Painter recorded six whiffs on the day, three with his fastball and three with breaking balls. Highlights are up on the On Pattison website HERE.

The 21-year-old pitcher has now thrown ten innings over four AFL starts. He's expected to throw 20 total innings in the AFL before the Phillies organization decides on next steps.

"The main thing is that we want to make sure that he's healthy and that he's ready to go into spring training," said Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski in mid-October. "What I don't know is how many innings we feel comfortable for him to pitch next year. And then we need to have a plan in that regard.

"Does he pitch at the minor league level for a while and then come up? Does he pitch two or three innings in the beginning and add more innings at the back end of the year? Does he have a consistent number of innings all year long?”

Time will tell. But so far, so good for the young flamethrower.

The Sixers staged Halloween a night early, running around in costume (Sixers uniforms) but getting zero treats in a blowout loss to a Pistons squad that got its first win of the season here.

Without Joel Embiid and Paul George, the Sixers are a shell of what they might be. They’ll be the Zombie Sixers in this space until the franchise decides to take any of these regular season games seriously.

The Sixers were never really in this game. It took a 9-0 Sixers run early in the fourth quarter to cut the Pistons’ lead to 10 points.

Again…these are the Pistons. The team that looked at the Tobias Harris Era in Philadelphia and said “oh yeah, we gotta have that.”

Harris had a double-double, because of course he did.

In 2024, an unassailable litmus test is Howard Eskin putting the screws to the head coach about the Sixers’ questionable decision to aggressively encourage fans to buy tickets for games the team is definitely not trying to win.

Until their stars play, we will continue to cover the Zombie Sixers in this space the way we try to encourage a family member who has fallen on hard times and/or can’t stop making bad choices.

We’ll cover them, but we won’t feel good about it.

It’s #3 Penn State vs. #4 Ohio State on Saturday in Happy Valley. Nittany Lions fans have been starving for a game of this magnitude. Now that they have it, there is no half-stepping in terms of enthusiasm.

Good vibes only on Halloween. Even the end zone in Beaver Stadium is changing its look.

Despite the balmy late fall weather all of us are enjoying(?), the forecast for Saturday noon at Beaver Stadium is a straight up white-out with just a tinge of blue.

Some percentage of the fans were probably psyched for the rumored appearance by 45. As of this writing, no such luck.

More likely to feature is Penn State starting quarterback Drew Allar, whose recovery from the injury he sustained during last weekend’s win over Wisconsin appears to be progressing ahead of schedule.

The noon kickoff continues to be a contentious issue for some, who thought this game should have been flexed to prime time.

If you’re not leaf-peeping or picking apples, though, you could do a lot worse Saturday afternoon than tuning into this showdown.

Don’t believe us? Believe this guy.

📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

On October 31, 2008, Philadelphia hosted an epic Halloween parade.

📊 Poll

Results from Wednesday:

🔗 Links

• 🐀 2009 is still the last time the Yankees and their entitled fans can call their team World Series champions.

• 🙄 It takes a lot to get banned from a World Series game, but these guys made it happen.

• 🎤 Gambling on college football games might be even riskier than you thought.

• 🏥 You might want to consult the Eagles’ injury list before laying points this weekend.

• ⛳️ Jalen Hurts had to sit out a golf round with President Obama and Saquon Barkley for contractual reasons.

📺 Coming Up

Games before our next send.

October 31, 2024

• Flyers vs. Blues, 7:00 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)

Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow.

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