PHILADELPHIA _ Nick Pivetta stood in the eye of the storm.
It was the fifth inning Tuesday night. The Phillies were facing the Cardinals in the opener of a three-game homestand at Citizens Bank Park. And it was raining _ nay, pouring _ as Pivetta called for a new, dry baseball in the middle of an at-bat against Dexter Fowler.
The metaphor was unavoidable. For Pivetta, this was a new, fresh opportunity after a month in exile at Triple-A Lehigh Valley. He gave up three runs, including two home runs, in the first inning. But here he was, on the verge of completing the fifth inning and leaving the mound with a lead.
Pivetta made it through. He got Fowler to fly out, and after giving up a two-out hit, got Paul DeJong to fly out, too. Then, three relievers passed the baton over the next four innings to assure that Cesar Hernandez's two-run homer in the fourth inning would hold up as the decisive blow in a 4-3 victory.
For Pivetta, it was progress.
Even before the Phillies decided to bring back Pivetta, manager Gabe Kapler noted the right-hander's struggles in the first inning of starts, an issue that didn't go away during his time in Triple-A.
In his first four starts of the season, Pivetta allowed four first-inning runs. He gave up six runs in the first innings of his six starts for Lehigh Valley. And it took all of 13 pitches _ after rain delayed the start of the game by 50 minutes _ for him to drop the Phillies into a hole against the Cardinals.
Paul Goldschmidt smoked a full-count slider over the left-field fence for a solo home run. Four pitches later, after Pivetta hit DeJong with a curveball, he left a fastball over the plate that Marcell Ozuna crushed for a two-run homer.
But if it has become predictable to see Pivetta get roughed up in the first inning, the idea that he would be the catalyst for the Phillies' comeback in the third was entirely far-fetched. Hitless in seven at-bats this season and 7 for 91 (.077) in his career, he looked foolish by ducking out of the way of a first-pitch curveball from Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright.
A funny thing happened, though, on the way to Pivetta being an automatic out: He stroked a one-out single to center field, advanced to second on Andrew McCutchen's single, and moved to third on a wild pitch.
The stage was set for slumping Bryce Harper, who sat on a curveball and lined a two-run double down the line in right field to cut the deficit to 3-2.
The Phillies surged ahead in the fourth inning. J.T. Realmuto lined a single on Wainwright's first pitch of the inning before Hernandez went deep to open a 4-3 advantage.
Pivetta held the lead and turned it over to the bullpen in the sixth inning. He looked particularly strong during a stretch in the third and fourth innings when he mowed through the top of the Cardinals' order. He struck out Fowler on a fastball, got Goldschmidt to roll over a sinker and fanned DeJong on a fastball and Ozuna on a curve.
