PHILADELPHIA — Phillies second baseman Luis Arraez left the club’s matchup against the St. Louis Cardinals early on Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park. The team announced that he was dealing with lower-body cramps and would be evaluated further.
Arraez, a three-time batting champion, went 1-for-2 with a single off Cardinals left-hander Quinn Matthews and later scored on a two-run single by Bryan De La Cruz in the bottom of the third inning of an eventual 12-3 blowout win. But when the Phillies headed back out for defense in the fourth, Bryson Stott came off the bench to replace Arraez.
“We’ll see tomorrow,” interim manager Don Mattingly said. “I know (it’s) lower-body cramping. He had a little bit of history of this when came over, so we’ll see where it goes. We’ll see what it looks like tomorrow.”
Center fielder Derek Hill was later removed from the game with neck stiffness. Arraez, Philadelphia’s biggest acquisition at the trade deadline, leads with major leagues with a .323 batting average and has an .800 OPS this season. He’s hitting .315 with a .795 OPS in 17 games as the Phillies’ cleanup hitter.
The Phillies (72-58) bombarded the Cardinals with an offensive attack, and rookie pitcher Andrew Painter delivered seven strong innings in the longest outing of his young career. He allowed one run on five hits, struck out eight batters and walked none. He threw 103 pitches and hit 99.6 mph against his final batter.
“Just on the attack all night long,” Mattingly said of Painter. “Seems like he located all night long, had all the counts that he wanted. So you can’t ask for much better than that. It’s a pretty good view. If he turns into something like that, then it’s a monster.”
