D-backs hitting stride following 4th consecutive win: 'We're vibing'

PHOENIX -- Less than a week ago, the D-backs were at their lowest point of the season. Losers of five in a row, they were a season-worst seven games under .500.

But something happened in the final inning of the last loss in that streak. Trailing the Mets in the ninth at Citi Field last Friday, the D-backs rallied for four runs, and while they didn’t win the game, something clicked for them.

After their 8-5 win over the Giants at Chase Field, the D-backs have matched their season-long winning streak at four games and have passed the Giants in the NL West standings.

“We were down by five and I think we scored four and there were a couple of home runs that happened really quick,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said of the Mets game. “And ever since that inning I started having a very good feeling about what we were able to do offensively and something clicked with the guys possibly, I'm not sure exactly what it was. But you know, I've been saying now for a few days you never know where the rally is going to start and you just got to be the guy doing your job at that one moment.”

It had been an exasperating first two months of the season for the D-backs. They could never seem to get any traction. A win here, two losses there -- every time they thought they maybe had put it all together, they would drop a game or two.

“I think we were all getting frustrated, myself included,” Lovullo said. “We have a standard here and we weren't quite achieving that standard. And there was one or two things we were doing wrong and it was costing us the ability to win a baseball game. And you know, it all adds up, everything adds up. You think small and big things happen. You do little things they add up to great moments that help you win a baseball game.”

Particularly in the last two games against the Giants, the D-backs have been playing the type of baseball that helped them get to the World Series last year. The defense has been crisp, they’ve taken the extra base when it’s there and they’ve taken advantage of mistakes by the opposition.

An example of that came in the third inning when the D-backs scored three runs to grab the early lead.

Jake McCarthy led off the inning with a single and Blaze Alexander followed with a grounder to the hole at short. Giants shortstop Casey Schmitt -- who primarily plays third -- dove for the ball and it skipped off his glove, slowing it down so that left fielder Michael Conforto had to race in to pick it up.

McCarthy never broke stride in heading for third and Alexander, who was hustling out of the box, made it into second, and both were able to score when Kevin Newman followed with a single to left.

“As I rounded [first] I saw that ball trickle into the outfield and, boom, slid in, tried to pump up the crowd and then Newman’s big hit right after, two RBIs and got us rolling,” said Alexander, whose three-hit night provided a spark at the bottom of the order.

Whether that ninth inning in New York was really a turning point won’t be known for quite some time, but for now, at least, the D-backs are feeling pretty good about themselves.

Music was blaring in the clubhouse postgame with a new lighting system that had different colors and shapes dancing on the ceiling with the main lights off.

“It's really good energy right now,” Alexander said. “And we're just gonna keep on rolling with it. We're just flowing, we’re vibing.”