Before the Braves Series, the Philadelphia Phillies Make Adjustments to Their Pitching Unit.

The Philadelphia Phillies and the Atlanta Braves will play their big four-game series starting on Thursday. This series has the potential to either effectively seal the division in the Phillies’ favor or make the remaining stretch of the regular season extremely competitive in the race to win the NL East for the first time since 2011.

The Phillies have a five-game lead over their bitter rivals going into Game 1.
A reverse sweep would be disastrous, but a sweep would be flawless and a split would be secure.

In light of this, Philadelphia made some adjustments to their pitching staff, which has come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks due to this protracted, difficult period following the All-Star break.

It’s not the move that many Phillies supporters had hoped to see, unfortunately.Philadelphia kept the struggling Taijuan Walker on the roster by sending down top prospect Michael Mercado and recalling reliever Yunior Marte from Triple-A, as revealed by their announcement.

It’s perplexing that they persist on keeping the seasoned starter in the mix despite his historically poor performance on Wednesday.
In terms of the actual transfer, Marte is receiving another chance to play in the Major Leagues from the Phillies after experiencing his own problems this season.

The right-hander has made 22 appearances and given up 19 earned runs in 24 innings thrown, good for a 7.13 ERA that is more than two runs higher than his 2023 total.

Marte, who was acquired by the Philadelphia Phillies in a trade with the San Francisco Giants prior to the 2018 season, has struggled to find the strike zone, walking 31 batters in 63.1 innings pitched, which results in a startling 1.737 walk-to-hit ratio.
Dylan Covey was just announced to have been activated off the 60-day injured list, but it’s obvious that they want him to continue throwing in the minor leagues before perhaps using him this season given how long he has been out.

Mercado has made five career appearances but has allowed 16 earned runs and nine home runs in 13 innings of work, demonstrating that he is still not yet ready to face Major League hitters.

Marte’s last three appearances saw him pitch three scoreless innings while allowing only one hit, one walk, and one strikeout. Hopefully, he has discovered something at the Triple-A level that he can bring to this Phillies trip.