Arizona Diamondbacks Notebook-Socrates Brito recalled from Reno

The Arizona Diamondbacks begin a three game weekend series Friday night against the Rockies at Coors Field.

Active rosters expanded from 25 to 40 across the major-leagues September 1, but the front office of the Arizona Diamondbacks wanted to wait until their Triple-A Reno Aces’ season ended before making any decisions.

The Reno Aces saw their chances of winning the Pacific Coast League Northern division come to an end Thursday night after a 3-1 loss to the Sacramento River Cats.

On Friday, General Manager Dave Stewart announced that outfielder Socrates Brito was coming back to the big-leagues for the fourth time this season.

In his last seven games with the Aces, Brito hit .500 with four extra base hits (one home run) and 6 RBI. In 73 games at Triple-A this season, he hit .294 with 10 doubles, eight triples, six home runs, and 39 RBI.

The Diamondbacks traded Michael Bourn to the Orioles on Wednesday with the goal in mind of giving Brito and other future outfield pieces regular playing time.

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Brito made his first career Opening Day roster this season, and entered the year as the Diamondbacks number four prospect per MLB.com. For the third consecutive season, Baseball America named him the best athlete in the organization.

In 19 major-league games this season, he hit .154 (10-for-54) with two home runs and five RBI.

Brito was on the 15-day disabled list from June 24-August 4 after fracturing his big right toe.

The 23-year-old left-handed hitter was sent back to the minors on Aug 16 when Mitch Haniger was called up to make his Arizona Diamondbacks debut. Brito has a hit in all 12 games since being sent down with a .431 batting average.

The native of the Dominican Republic was not in Friday night’s lineup at Coors Field against the Colorado Rockies.

It is unclear if the Diamondbacks are going to call up additional players, but manager Chip Hale made it clear that the organization will not expand for the sake of just expanding the roster.

“We’re not going to call up 40 guys, that’s for sure,” Hale said. “We want to limit it and give the guys here a lot of playing time.”

Diamondbacks encouraged by Shelby Miller’s latest outing

His offense was unable to back him up, managing to score just two runs off of starter Matt Moore and the Giants bullpen, but this game was about the return of Shelby Miller.

In his first start back in the big leagues since July 6, right-hander Shelby Miller gave Hale six innings of solid baseball, and allowed allowing six hits, struck out out three, walked one and surrendered two earned one.

This will go in the record books as Miller’s 10th loss of the 2016 season. Yet, given everything that the right-hander has been through this year, this has to feel like a win for Miller mentally.

“I’m excited about the outing. He was in attack mode all the way,” Hale said after his latest start against the Giants this past Wednesday. “When guys got on, it didn’t rattle him. He got out of it,” Hale said.

Miller said he felt really good mechanically. Giving up two runs in the first was more about the nerves of being back.

“I stopped playing with my mechanics and got back to what I used to do in the past,” Miller said. ‘I didn’t think about anything. I was trying to be an athletic pitcher.”

After a 36-pitch opening frame, Miller battled and became more efficient. What impressed Hale and the coaching staff the most was his ability to keep his emotions in check. He was able to have a short term memory and focus on the next pitch.

Next: Diamondbacks send seven to Arizona Fall League

“You have to believe in yourself,” he said. “If you can’t do that, things go wrong and you struggle even more. It’s not easy. It’s a grind. The good thing is we’re all on board as a team. I obviously struggled early and had to go down, and that’s never fun. It’s good to be back here and part of this group.”

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