There is no denying that the debut of top Phillies prospect Andrew Painter was the highlight of the IronPigs homestand last week.

Painter’s debut was just one of six strong starts by Lehigh Valley pitchers as the IronPigs staff has become dominant in the early part of the season.

Painter, who is coming off Tommy John surgery, was on a four-inning, or 60 pitch, limit Thursday night. Early on it appeared he would easily make it for four full innings, but a tough third inning where he threw 30 pitches to equal the total he threw in the first two innings combined, ended his night after three scoreless innings. Painter allowed one hit but walked three hitters. His velocity was good, and his breaking pitches had good movement on them.

“I want to go out there and just throw a lot of strikes. I did a good job for eight outs, and then kind of lost it a little bit. But I was just looking to go out there and get ahead early,” said Painter. “Adversity is something you always want to work yourself out of. It’s good to be in those situations and there’s no one coming to save you. You’ve got to get out of it yourself.”

Nabil Crismatt has become a rock star in the rotation and in two outings against Worcester last week threw 13 innings without allowing a run and allowed just four hits. Coming into this week, the 30-year-old right-hander has a 4-1 record with a 1.96 ERA in eight starts. Crismatt has mainly been a reliever during his career and has 140 major league relief appearances, could potentially be an option for a beleaguered Phillies bullpen.

From there, another pitching prospect quietly gathering up some impressive numbers is Mick Abel. The 23-year-old lowered his season ERA to 2.53 with seven innings of three hit ball against Worcester while striking out nine batters.

Righty Kyle Tyler has a 3.05 ERA in seven starts this season with Lehigh Valley as he too threw seven innings against Worcester during the last homestand. Alan Rangel has been the only inconsistent member of the starting staff, but he threw 5 2/3 innings against Worcester and allowed just one run.

In the last homestand, the starters threw 32 2/3 innings, giving up just 14 hits and 14 walks while striking out 34 hitters. Their four earned runs allowed gave them an ERA of 1.10 as a staff with three of their starters going seven innings.

“These guys are all busting their butt,” said catcher Garrett Stubbs of the IronPigs starting pitchers. “They all take pride in what they do, and they all take pride in what the other guys do. It’s exciting to see some of these young guys throwing the way they are. I’m excited to see what they do at the next level when they’re done here.”

THE MATCHUP… Painter is the Phillies top prospect, and he went toe-to-toe with the Red Sox top prospect Roman Anthony. Not only is Anthony the best that Boston has, but he is rated as the top prospect in all baseball by Baseball America. The pair faced each other twice on Thursday with Anthony striking out and then drawing a walk. Painter made an art of changing speeds against Anthony, opening with a 97 mph fastball for a called strike and then getting him to swing through a 91 mph cutter. A 98 mph four-seamer missed the zone and Painter then struck him out swinging on an 84 mph curveball.

REALITY CHECK… With a 27-12 record, Lehigh Valley has their best record in franchise history through 39 games. They have opened a three-game lead over Durham and Jacksonville, who are both 24-15, in the International League East Division. It is worth noting that all but three of the Pigs games have come against teams with a losing record. The only three against a winning team were against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (19-18) to open the season. As things stand now, they don’t face a team with a winning record again until July 1st when they host Scranton at Coca-Cola Park for three games and then go to PNC Park in Moosic, PA, for three more with the RailRiders after that.