This story was excerpted from Steve Gilbert's D-backs Beat newsletter. Sonja Chen pinch-hit on this edition. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

If the D-backs' offseason additions had panned out the way they had envisioned, Ryne Nelson might have ended up as the odd man out in the rotation.

But with the stretch run underway and Arizona positioned well for a repeat trip to the postseason, Nelson has blossomed into one of the team's most consistent starters of late.

"He's emerging as one of the guys we look forward to every fifth day, and he's grown and he's learned so much over the course of 20-plus starts that he's given us this year," manager Torey Lovullo said after Nelson earned his 10th win on Tuesday at Oracle Park. "He's locked in right now. He's throwing the ball extremely well."

The rotation was expected to be a strength for the D-backs this season, with free-agent signees Eduardo Rodriguez and Jordan Montgomery joining Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly and Brandon Pfaadt.

Long-term injuries to Rodriguez (left shoulder strain) and Kelly (right shoulder strain) and underperformance from Montgomery -- who signed with the team late, did not have a Spring Training and was shifted to the bullpen in August -- played a role in derailing those plans. Arizona starters have combined to post a 4.75 ERA (27th in the Majors) entering Saturday.

Meanwhile, Nelson has not lost a decision since June 26, and he is 5-0 with a 2.76 ERA in his past 12 appearances (11 starts). He's struck out 75 against 14 walks and allowed a .217 opponents' batting average during that span.

How did Nelson unlock this stretch of sustained success? It began with getting back to basics and trusting his stuff.

Early on in this 12-game run, Nelson began ramping up usage of his four-seam fastball, peaking when he threw it 74.5% of the time against the Blue Jays on July 12. The uptick was part of a "conscious effort" to play to his strengths, Nelson said, while developing a better feel for the rest of his repertoire.

Since then, Nelson has thrown his four-seamer at levels more consistent with his career average. But he retained a key takeaway from his fastball-heavy approach: Attack hitters in the zone and be confident in your best stuff.

"If you go out there and try to attack their holes, I guess you could say you could potentially be going with your third- or fourth-best pitch," Nelson said. "Maybe their strength is one thing, but it's also your strength. You kind of have to trust that and just execute. It might be their strength, but if you execute that pitch, it's going to be favorable more often than not."

Favorable indeed, as the D-backs have won nine of Nelson's past 12 starts. The effort has not gone unnoticed by his teammates, who are getting used to these types of performances when Nelson takes the mound.

"He's dominating, he's filling up the zone, he's getting bad swing-and-misses, he's going after guys, and that's fun to watch," right fielder Randal Grichuk said. "He's saying, 'Here's my stuff. Here's my best stuff. Try to hit it.' And they haven't been for a long time."

If Nelson continues to perform at this level through the last three weeks of the regular season, there is a real case for him to follow Gallen and Kelly -- who both took a step forward in their most recent starts -- in a postseason rotation should the D-backs punch their ticket.

Last year, Nelson appeared in three postseason games for the NL champions -- notably holding the Rangers to one run in 5 1/3 innings of long relief in Game 4 of the World Series -- but did not make a start.

The D-backs, of course, need to keep their momentum going through September before they can start thinking about how they'll line up in October. This month is all about putting themselves in the best position to win every day as the stakes get increasingly higher.

And lately, Arizona knows it has a good chance of winning when Nelson takes the ball.

"It's nice to know that the guys have my back and that that's what they're feeling when I go out there, because that's what you want," Nelson said.

"You want to go out and give your team the best chance to win, show them that you're going to put it all on the line every time you step out there, and that's what I'm trying to do."