MIAMI – On July 16, 2022, right-hander Max Meyer made his big-league debut for the Miami Marlins.
His manager that day was Don Mattingly.
His opponent was the Phillies.
Meyer was tagged for five runs in 5 1/3 innings that day – J.T. Realmuto and Rhys Hoskins homered – and the Phillies laid a 10-0 whooping on the Marlins.
Nearly four years later, Mattingly is managing the Phillies and Meyer, the third overall pick in the 2020 draft, is putting his career back together after three injury-plagued seasons.
In a bit of a full circle moment, Meyer pitched brilliantly against the Phillies on Saturday afternoon. The Phils had just one hit – a single by late lineup addition Garrett Stubbs — in a 4-0loss to the Marlins.
Meyer pitched a career-high seven innings. He allowed just one hit, one walk and struck out seven.
Meanwhile, Phillies rookie Andrew Painter was bruised for seven hits and three runs in five innings. Painter had control issues. Two of his three walks came with the bases loaded in the third inning.
The Phillies have lost in each of Painter’s last four starts. He has allowed 16 hits and five walks in 10 2/3 innings over his last two.
Six of the hits that Painter allowed Saturday were singles. The seventh was a solo homer by Xavier Edwards in the fifth.
Painter left trailing, 3-0. That was not exactly an insurmountable deficit. On this day, however, it was. Meyer had five 1-2-3 innings. The Phillies never got a runner to second base. Stubbs provided the Phils’ only hit with a single to right-center in the third. He was quickly erased in a double play. At 103.5 mph, Stubbs’ single was the hardest-hit ball by either team in the game.
Phillies hitters struck out 10 times. Kyle Schwarber struck out three times. Halfway through the four-game series, he has struck out eight times.
The loss snapped a four-game win streak for the Phillies and was their first since Mattingly took over as manager on Tuesday. The Phils are 13-20.
Jesus Luzardo (2-3, 5.50) and Chris Paddock (0-4, 6.11) are the pitchers on Sunday afternoon.