Snake Bytes, 6/21: The Phills are alive...

Recaps

[Fox Sports] 'Nuns' enjoy frosty cold one during D-backs win - Three nuns in the crowd garnered Steve and Bob's attention during Monday's game in Philly.

[dbacks.com] D-backs' Shelby Miller dominates Phillies - "I thought his stuff was better," Hale said. "I think he trusted it, he threw strikes with it. When the leadoff guy got on, for example, he didn't compound it with walks and then load the bases and stuff that he had done earlier in the year. The velocity has obviously gotten better and better since the first day of Spring Training. That's a very good sign for me." Miller touched 97 mph on the radar gun and regularly hit 95-96 mph.

[Arizona Sports] No silence from Jake Lamb in sweep of Phillies - The Arizona Diamondbacks and third baseman Jake Lamb left Philadelphia the right way Monday with a four-game series sweep against the Phillies. Lamb was a factor in all four games, hitting two home runs with five RBI in Philadelphia. He had nine hits, including a triple, in 17 at-bats to help the D-backs earn their second four-game series sweep of the season.

[AZ Central] Shelby Miller, back from DL, shuts down Phillies - The same caveats apply to Miller’s rousing 6 2/3-inning, one-run return from the disabled list as those pertaining to the Diamondbacks’ four-game sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies. But while there’s no telling what Miller might have done against a more capable lineup, it’s a little easier to imagine the success translating given the weapons he had at his disposal. Miller, who struck out five, recorded 13 swings and misses and averaged 94.8 mph with his fastball. Both are season highs.

Team news

[dbacks.com] D-backs activate Shelby Miller, call up Brito - "I've been swinging at better pitches and my swing is really on time right now," Brito said. "I don't have any issues in my swing right now. I just feel really great." The team initially thought Peralta's tight lower back would only sideline him for a couple of days, but it has not gotten better and he will undergo an MRI in Phoenix to determine if it is anything serious. D-backs manager Chip Hale said Drury, who mainly played outfield in the big leagues, will get most of his work at second and third base while with Reno.

[AZ Central] Diamondbacks place David Peralta on DL, recall Socrates Brito - Peralta went on the DL with a low back strain, although the club is sending him for further testing this week in Phoenix. Peralta still doesn’t know how he hurt his back. "When I woke up (on Thursday) it was hard for me to get out of bed," Peralta said. "Then I came to the stadium and it was fine, but when I started swinging it got tight. It’s just a thing that happened. I don’t know how it happened." Said manager Chip Hale: "I don’t think anybody feels like it’s really a bad, bad injury. It’s just going to take some time to get better."

[Arizona Sports] D-backs sign second-round pick Andrew Yerzy - Yerzy is a left-handed hitting catcher and has played for the U18 Canadian Junior National Team since age 15. He’ll report to the Missoula Osprey, the D-backs’ rookie affiliate in the Pioneer League. MLB.com’s Jim Callis reported via Twitter that Yerzy signed for $1.2 million. The D-backs’ highest unsigned pick is now fifth-round infielder Joey Rose.

[AZ Central] Diamondbacks continue to feast on bad teams - Cubs, Cardinals or Pirates again this year – they went a combined 7-13 against the NL Central’s best – they still have 13 games left against the Brewers and Reds. What the Diamondbacks have managed to do through the six games they’ve played against the Phillies and Braves – two teams clearly in rebuild mode -- is not look a gift horse in the mouth. And they still have eight games left against them.

And, elsewhere...

[AZ Central] Arizona League schedule set for hot openers - It would take an excessively motivated baseball fan to attend an Arizona League opener Monday night amid excessive heat warnings. The schedule opens with five games Monday night: The season runs June 20-Sept. 3, with games played at each team’s spring-training complexes. The price is right, free parking and admission, but with no concessions sold, it is wise to bring your own water and snacks.

[ESPN] A look at baseball's longest droughts - I was surprised to see that the Seattle Marines have the longest current absence from the post-season They haven't seen playoff baseball since 2001, when they won 116 games, and didn't make it to the World Series. Next longest are the Marlins (2003) and Padres (2006).

[Vice] New Technologies Are Forcing Baseball To Balance Big Data With "Big Brother - Many of this revolution's tenets will be familiar to anyone who works for a living—the ever-growing digitization and quantification of things never-before measured and tracked, for instance, or the ever-expanding workplace, the blurring distinction between the professional and the personal, and the cult of self-improvement for self-improvement's sake. These broader trends are colliding with baseball tradition on backfields and in training facilities around the major leagues, and those collisions have raised questions about privacy, security, and what employees owe their employers.

[southbendtribune] A Look Back: Women baseball players visited Cuba - During regular season play, league players traveled between the teams’ home cities, including Grand Rapids and Fort Wayne as well as South Bend. The women, however, traveled further afield for their annual spring training. Usually it took place in Florida or Mississippi, but in 1947, the women traveled to Havana, Cuba. Many of the women had never before left their home state, let alone the United States, and most had never been on an airplane.