Phillies Notebook: Phillies make call-ups

ATLANTA - It's difficult to conjure up excitement when you enter September in last place with the very real possibility of reaching 90 losses before the end of the month.

But the Phillies will follow a combined no-hitter on the first day of the season's final month by bringing their top prospect up to the big leagues.

Maikel Franco was added to the big-league roster after the Phillies' 7-0 no-hit win over the Braves at Turner Field yesterday. Franco will join five other September call-ups, pitchers Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez and Luis Garcia, catcher Cameron Rupp, infielder Cesar Hernandez and outfielder Tony Gwynn Jr.

Mike Adams also will join the team; he was activated off the disabled list.

Franco's name is a pleasant surprise, however, for a fan base that has grown tired of the Phillies' stagnant lineup. The righthanded, power-hitting corner infielder, who turned 22 last week, could start in place of Ryan Howard tonight against Atlanta lefthander Mike Minor.

Franco hit .257 with 16 home runs and 33 doubles in 134 games this season at Triple A Lehigh Valley. But after a rough first 3 months with the IronPigs, Franco did the majority of his damage after June.

Franco hit .324 (72-for-222) with 11 home runs and 17 doubles in his final 56 games, beginning on July 2. Six of his 16 home runs this season came in his last 21 games.

"He's hot," Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg said last week. "The doubles kind of pop out. In the minor leagues, that's a power number. At the major leagues, that's a power number."

Franco was rated the No. 17 prospect in baseball by Baseball America last winter, after the third baseman hit .320 with 31 home runs, 36 doubles and a .926 OPS in 134 games between Class A Clearwater and Double A Reading in 2013. Since the moves were made following yesterday's game, general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. will speak about the additions to the roster when the players join the team today.

After trading John Mayberry Jr. to the Toronto Blue Jays Sunday night, Amaro admitted on yesterday afternoon that change was necessary in the coming months.

"You know, not that it's a huge change, but we're going to have to start churning the roster in a way that it's going to have it be improved," Amaro said, before yesterday's game, of swapping Mayberry for minor league third baseman Gustavo Pierre. "We felt like we're covered in the outfield as far as what we have right now and what we might have coming."

Given his choice of words, Amaro was asked if he expected a lot more change (roster turnover) in the coming offseason.

"I think we need it," he said. "What we have on our roster right now isn't working. How much we do depends on what makes sense for us. We're still assessing what we have, but I think it behooves us to look to make changes because we need to be better."

But change can be tough when you have more than a couple players locked into not-easy-to-move, long-term contracts, right?

"These are discussions that we'll hold closer to the end of the year or after the season," Amaro said. "We have a lot of ideas where we want to go, but to crystallize those, we'll have to see how things go, particularly when we have a chance to see some of the guys called up here. We have a lot of decisions to make. I think it's a good thing. Change is going to be good in certain ways. Consistency is important, too. I think we have a lot to assess, but we have a pretty good idea where we want to go. We just have to start thinking about the execution of those things."

Mayberry, 30, hit .242 with 52 home runs and a .733 OPS in six seasons (500 games) with the Phillies. In exchange for the righthanded-hitting reserve outfielder, the Phils received the 22-year-old Pierre, who is likely to spend 2015 at Double A Reading.

"We've actually seen a lot of him this year, and our player-development people and our scouts have seen a lot of improvement in him," Amaro said. "He's got the defensive tool and the power tool. He strikes out a lot and he doesn't walk a lot. But he's improved over the last couple years. We'll see what we got out of him."

Pierre, a free agent signed out of the Dominican Republic, has hit .247 with 36 home runs and a .660 OPS in six minor league seasons (540 games). In the last two seasons, Pierre has hit 16 home runs while striking out 240 times and walking 17 times in 231 games between A ball and Double A.

Cole Hamels is the fifth pitcher this season to go at least six innings without allowing a hit, but only the second not to finish off a no-hitter. Atlanta's Aaron Harang was pulled after throwing 121 pitches in seven no-hit innings against the Mets in an eventual 6-0 win on April 18 at Citi Field . . . Hamels is just the third Phillies pitcher in the last 100 years to get pulled in the seventh inning or later while not allowing a hit, according to ESPN'S Jayson Stark. The other two: David West (1994) and Jimmy Ring (1922) . . . Jimmy Rollins went 3-for-5 with a triple and a double. It was the 658th multi-hit game of Rollins' career, a new franchise record; Rollins entered the game tied with Hall of Famer Richie Ashburn. Rollins' 887th career RBI moved him into seventh place in franchise history, ahead of Sherry Magee.