D-backs assistant GM Porter: Surge of wins is nice, but not the end goal

The Arizona Diamondbacks have rolled to a six-game winning streak as their pitching, offense and defense are clicking at the same time.

D-backs assistant general manager Jared Porter told Arizona Sports’ Doug & Wolf on Wednesday that when that happens, they’re a really good team. While the surge of wins is nice, it’s not the end goal.

“Trying to play long-sleeve baseball in October is our goal and we’re not close to that yet,” Porter said. “We continue to work towards it, but certainly this little run here has been nice.”

The D-backs offense has surged since last week’s series at Coors Field against the Colorado Rockies. In the past eight games, the team has amassed a total of 63 runs. Porter said heading into that series, the message to the team was simple.

“I know one of the things that guys were talking about at Coors was to keep things simple, just keep things simple and try to hit singles, and if we do that at Coors Field, sometimes it goes out of the ballpark, and I think that that’s given the guys a lot of confidence,” Porter said.

The offensive success comes from the hitting staff pushing the team to be uncomfortable in practice by working more with the velocity and breaking ball machines, which might not make them look great in practice but makes a difference come game time.

During Tuesday’s game, the starting pitching had another boost with Luke Weaver having one of his best outings of the season. Weaver posted five strong innings for the first time this season, allowing three hits and one run.

Porter said there were three things that stood out about Weaver’s start: his confidence, where his fastball was finishing in the middle to upper half of the zone and following the first inning, Weaver did a good job of mixing in different types of pitches.

“It was a huge start for Luke and let’s hope he can keep it going moving forward,” Porter said.

As a group, the starting rotation has struggled to gain momentum this season, but the team feels that it’s a strength, which has shown with pitchers like Weaver and Robbie Ray trending in the right direction.

“Those guys, they took some lumps early at times but this is a unique season that’s a hard year to evaluate all areas and I think it looks right now that we’re starting to get locked in collectively as a group,” Porter said.

The D-backs are on the road tonight in Oakland against the A’s. First pitch is at 6:40 p.m. on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station.

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