This story was excerpted from Steve Gilbert’s D-backs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Friday marked when rosters throughout baseball expanded from 26 to 28 and the D-backs recalled right-hander Luis Frias and infielder/outfielder Pavin Smith from Triple-A Reno.

In an additional move, the D-backs recalled third baseman Emmanuel Rivera and optioned infielder Buddy Kennedy to Reno.

Before you overanalyze those moves, understand that there will be plenty more throughout the month as the D-backs look to mix and match and ride the hot hand in an attempt to capture one of the NL Wild Card spots.

“Triple-A is going to play until the end of the month so it’s business as usual with the roster,” D-backs GM Mike Hazen said. “So we’ll continue to monitor what we think are the best opportunities to help the club. We'll see how the pitching goes. We’ll see day to day. We have a number of arms down there that we feel like we could call on if we needed to, but Frias was throwing the ball well, so, obviously, he got the first call.”

It's been since 2019 that the D-backs were in contention for a postseason spot this late in the season and you have to go back to ‘17 for the last time they made the playoffs.

So it was hard for Hazen to watch his team get dominated in the three-game sweep earlier this week at Dodger Stadium.

“I don’t think we played very well,” Hazen said. “I thought other than up to the middle part of that first game, we weren’t really in those games and this is the time of year that we need to play better. The opportunity for us to get into the playoffs is significant. It's within our control. It's not, at this point, wondering what could happen. If we play well for the next 30 days, we're going to make playoffs, if we don't, we're not. So that's the opportunity to get in front of us. I think it's an opportunity that we should certainly appreciate.”

Indeed, when the D-backs woke up this morning they were tied with the Giants for the final NL Wild Card spot.

With two games against the Giants at Chase Field later this month, the D-backs control their own destiny.

“We talked in Spring Training that one of our goals is to play meaningful games in a pennant race in September,” Hazen said. “We are. Now, that’s fine, but that wasn’t the only goal. Obviously, at that time we wanted to be realistic about what the expectations should be given the team we had, but we’ve improved that team now. The team is better than it was on Opening Day. Our players are better than they were on Opening Day. So the opportunity for us to go out there and perform better is in front of us too.”