La Russa: Successful stretch begins with our pitching

The Arizona Diamondbacks have won five straight games, and according to D-backs’ chief baseball officer Tony La Russa, pitching has been a big reason for the recent success.

“Game after game our starters are giving us an outstanding chance to win deep into the game,” La Russa said on the Doug and Wolf show on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Wednesday. “Our bullpen has been getting the last outs, yesterday was a terrific example with Barrett coming in and getting a very tough double play.

“I think our pitching is setting the course,” he added.

In the last five games, D-backs starters have allowed just seven earned runs on 27 hits with 26 strikeouts in 33 innings of work.

Tuesday in Toronto, Patrick Corbin allowed only two runs on nine hits with three strikeouts in 6.1 innings.

“He’s got a terrific ability to get the ball back to the third base side,” La Russa said on Corbin, who is now 4-6 following Tuesday’s win. “He’s been a tough luck pitcher, he’s got a couple losses that he didn’t deserve, but he got a well-deserved win yesterday.”

Pitching isn’t the only thing La Russa believes is getting the job done for the D-backs.

“We’ve exploded with some runs,” he said. “We’ve hit some home runs in this trip.”

The D-backs have been hot over this five-game stretch, driving in 26 runs with 12 home runs and 23 RBI.

Out of the 12 home runs the D-backs have hit, six have come from the duo of Peter O’Brien and Yasmany Tomas. The outfielders have three long balls a piece in this trip.

“When you put Peter and Tomas in the lineup, just watch them take (batting practice),” La Russa said. “That really adds a lot of potential power.”

The D-backs have won eight of their last 10 and entering play Wednesday sit only five games out in the National League Wild Card race.

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