NL WILDCARD GAME: PHILLIES VS BRAVES

September 30, 2026

Andrew Painter

Truist Park

Philadelphia Phillies

Postgame Press Conference

Phillies 4, Braves 3 (10)

Q. Andrew, I'm sure you've played this over in your head a million times, but your first postseason appearance ends up out of the bullpen, three innings of relief with your backs against the wall. What's going through your head right now? How do you feel?

ANDREW PAINTER: Not much. There's not much going on in the head right now. I wanted to be aggressive in the zone. Did not do that the first six pitches. I was trying to be super aggressive and go down with my best stuff. Knowing the situation we were in there and backs against the wall a little bit, just stepping on the gas there and just giving it everything I had in that moment.

Q. Andrew, you've threw about six balls to start the game but then you kind of settled in late. What was going through your mind? Can you talk through the process of how you settled in and was able to close it out?

ANDREW PAINTER: Yeah, obviously nerves getting to me a little bit at first. I was super amped up. I was just trying to throw everything as hard as I could.

Knowing that the changeup was probably going to get me in the zone with a lot of the misses being glove side with the 4, just being able to settle down. I think once I got that first strike in there, I was able to kind of ease in and it gave me a little bit of peace of mind.

Q. I think it's pretty much two months to the day that you were told you'd be coming back up here. At that time earlier when you'd been demoted, could you have envisioned contributing like this in the postseason?

ANDREW PAINTER: No, that wasn't even a thought at that point. It was last second when I got called up and was told I was going to be starting the next day in Baltimore. So all my focus was really on that. Just going out and giving the team a chance to win in Baltimore.

Q. It looked like after you threw the final pitch you were walking back to the dugout. Why did you do that? Did you think the score was tied?

ANDREW PAINTER: I don't know. That's just kind of where my finish takes me. I wanted the challenge. Kind of just blacked out in the moment.

Q. You threw about 37 pitches today. If you think about tomorrow, everything on the line, do you think you can give it a go again?

ANDREW PAINTER: Yeah, everything on the line. Luzardo would make fun of me if I didn't. I'm 23; he says I should be good every day.

Q. I think you've said before that you've never in your life really had a real relief appearance. You've followed openers, things like that, dating back to high school. What was it like to have more of a real relief appearance coming out of the bullpen like that, and what was the energy level and the adrenaline like compared to a start?

ANDREW PAINTER: Yeah, I mean, obviously I know I'm going out there for a shorter stint. Knowing I can go out there and empty the tank right away, I was probably making some people nervous yesterday in the bullpen with all the pacing around I was doing. But today I stayed sat for a little bit.

But just going out there after the six balls, strike one was what really let me get back in that mode and just kind of settle in a little bit.

Q. How much did your warmup differ today from a start?

ANDREW PAINTER: Yeah, it's a little different knowing what situation I might be going in the game, kind of knew it was going to be later. We knew McFarlane was probably going to kill the inning for Sanchez if we got to that, and then it was going to be me with a clean inning there.

I was just trying to stay moving around and just time everything up. It's obviously a shorter warmup, not long tossing. Long toss is a big thing when I'm starting games, but it's just a lot quicker. So being able to just go down there and let some bullets fly.

Q. You mentioned what your mindset was when you got called back up. Looking at your performance tonight, is this what you would have expected from yourself, or do you feel like you pushed yourself to new bounds that you weren't thinking of previously?

ANDREW PAINTER: I mean, I didn't think I was going to be closing a game in the playoffs, but I think I'm capable of a lot. And the first half of the year I was kind of just figuring out who I was as a pitcher and learning through the failure. And I think we did a lot of good stuff down in Triple-A, whether it was mechanically, it's pitch mix, it was sequencing, just trying to figure out what made the best version of myself as a pitcher.

So I think we did a really good job while we were down there and put in a lot of work and grinded to get to this point.

Q. Did you know Duran was not available, and what was the message to you as far as how long they were going to use you tonight?

ANDREW PAINTER: Yeah, Duran was down there in the bullpen, but César told me that I was going to go out for probably eight, nine. Even yesterday there was a possibility of closing. Just had to stay in that mindset and stay locked in late game.

Q. Where were you when Bohm hit the home run and what was your thought there, like three more outs, I can empty the tank?

ANDREW PAINTER: I was down in the tunnel and I heard it and I heard everyone cheering and I came up for that. Knowing that three outs was going to get that job done and letting everything loose, everything I had in the tank, just emptying it.

Q. J. T. has a high success rate with the ABS system. How key is that for you guys knowing that his eye just seems to always be aware of what's going on?

ANDREW PAINTER: It puts a lot of trust in it. When we can keep those challenges for late in the game, we have all the confidence in the world with J. T. using them, and we always want to reserve one for J. T. behind the plate. So just knowing that if we can keep those late in game, J. T. knows the situation and knows when it's a good time to challenge, and making sure we save them for the right spot.