Phillies recall Yunior Marte after rookie gets blasted by Astros

With an unquestionably big four-game series on the horizon, the Philadelphia Phillies made a minor roster move to prepare to welcome the Atlanta Braves to Citizens Bank Park on Thursday.

With the Phillies' lead over the Braves in the NL East down to 5.0 games, the team decided it needed a fresh arm in the bullpen for a series that could play a massive role in determining who will take home the division crown this season.

Phillies recall Yunior Marte after rookie Michael Mercado gets blasted by Astros

The Phillies announced that they have recalled right-handed reliever Yunior Marte and optioned right-hander Michael Mercado back to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. This will be Marte's fourth stint in the bullpen this season after injury and underperformance have seen his stock take a hit.

In 22 appearances in relief for the Phillies this season, Marte has a 7.13 ERA and 1.92 WHIP. He has thrown 24 innings with a 19.3 percent strikeout rate and 11.8 percent walk rate, which is the highest of his three-year MLB career.

Much of the damage to his ERA came in his last appearance out of the bullpen when he was shelled by the Arizona Diamondbacks for seven runs on six hits, including a pair of home runs, on Aug. 10 in the desert. Before that fateful outing that saw him demoted just days later, he had a more palatable but still rough 4.63 ERA.

In three appearances for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs since being sent down, Marte had thrown three clean innings. He allowed just one hit and one walk while striking out one batter.

The roster shuffle comes just a day after the rookie Mercado had the unenviable task of following Taijuan Walker out of the bullpen in the Phillies' 10-0 loss at the hands of the Houston Astros on Wednesday. The 25-year-old pitched 1 1/3 innings with the game already out of hand and allowed four runs on four hits and a walk. He surrendered three home runs in the forgettable outing.

Unfortunately for Mercado, the appearance continued an unsettling trend. In his two previous appearances in the majors he had allowed six runs to the Oakland Athletics and five runs to the Braves. He gave up three long balls in each of those outings as well.

He'll now get a chance to head back to Triple-A and sort himself out for the next opportunity he gets.