Turnbull puts El Mercado in fifth in rotation – NBC Sports Philadelphia

There are countless reasons why the Phillies reached the sports halfway point of the season on Thursday night with the best record in baseball, but none is more important than the health of their rotation.

They’ve only used six different starters since opening day, which is unusual.

Sorry. Update: By next week, it will be seven.

Right-handed pitcher Spencer Turnbull, who pitched just three innings in Detroit on Wednesday, was placed on the 15-day injured list with a strained right lat muscle. He is expected to miss six to eight weeks. He was starting in place of right-handed pitcher Taijuan Walker (right index finger).

25-year-old Michael Mercado, who pitched a scoreless inning against the Tigers after being called up from Triple-A Lehigh Valley, will fill the fifth spot in the rotation, manager Rob Thompson said before Thursday night’s game against the Marlins at Citizens Bank Park. He will likely make his first big-league start Tuesday night against the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

Meanwhile, backup pitcher Yunior Marte was recalled from Lehigh Valley to replace Turnbull on the roster.

This development is further proof of the old adage that a team can never have too many players. For much of the season there was a public debate about whether Walker or Turnbull should be the fifth starter, especially after Turnbull opened the season with a 2-0 record and 1.78 points per game while Walker was nursing a sore shoulder.

Losing both of them within a week would mean handing the ball to an inexperienced right-back and hoping for the best.

Meanwhile, the Phillies are knocking on wood when they realize that their top four starters — Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Ranger Suarez, Sanchez — haven’t missed an inning all season.

Mercado had a 1.71 earned run average for the Iron Pigs in 14 games, 10 of them starts. He had 44 strikeouts in 47.1 innings while allowing just 31 hits. There’s another reason to doubt he could be doing just fine. He’s one of three pitchers now on the Phillies’ active roster who were acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays, the other two, Christopher Sanchez and Jose Alvarado, having excelled this season.

“(Mercado) has a great arm,” Thompson said. “Power stuff. He spins the ball well and he hits strikes. The one inning he threw (in his major league debut) in Detroit was really well-rounded. I liked the way the ball came out of his hand and the way he attacked hitters and struck out.

The manager added that he does not expect his stadium boundaries to be restricted.

Thompson added that there is no timetable for Walker’s return. He has consistently said he needs to be healthy enough to throw his splitter effectively.

When asked about the depth remaining behind Mercado, the manager mentioned right-handed pitchers Tyler Phillips (7-3, 5.02) and David Buchanan (4-3, 5.19).

“It’s a long year and you can see it all through the league. There’s a lot of pitchers coming down,” he said. “A lot of position players, too. It’s tough, tough, tough 162. So you’ve got to have depth and our front office has done a great job of getting that. We just have to keep moving forward.”

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