Following an 8-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday, the Arizona Diamondbacks are now 38-36 and are doing just enough to maintain a winning record.

There are multiple reasons why the Diamondbacks have not been anything more than just a decent baseball team this season, and one of the reasons can be attributed to below-average pitching.

Starters such as Merrill Kelly and Zac Gallen have struggled, and the former is coming off a brutal outing in which he allowed 11 hits, six earned runs, and a walk against the Angels.

Still despite their struggles, belief in their capabilities remains. In a recent appearance with Ron Wolfley and Kellan Olson on Arizona Sports on 98.7 FM, Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen defended Kelly and Gallen.

"Yeah, look, they are gonna get the ball every five days," Hazen said. "The state of pitching in the game, the way it goes, the hitters are getting better there there's more power. It's just… I do think the game is a little bit different now, obviously with those guys, it's not everyday elite stuff that you're running out there on a nightly basis.

"Which everybody wants to do," Hazen added. "But they really know how to pitch. Yeah, they've gotten into some ruts here or there. I am still very confident that the ability to make pitches, the ability to sequence, the ability to, you know, not just get swing and miss, but work through games, keep the bullpen in a situation where they have."

After his tough outing against the Angels, Kelly is now 5-6 with a 5.81 ERA through 12 starts. Meanwhile, Gallen is 3-5 with a 5.35 ERA, and he just moved to second on the franchise’s all-time strikeout list. 

While Hazen is supportive of Kelly and Gallen, he emphasized that they, along with the group as a whole, need to play better.

"Yes, we need to get that group as a whole more consistently on a roll night in and night out if you're gonna run a winning streak," he said. "I think what we've done is we've middled around .500 here, a little over at times, a little under at times, and we've been settling around into this."

"We need to move past this and get on a run that’s going to kick us up to eight or 10 [games] over .500," Hazen added. "Yeah, we haven’t done that yet, and that consistency from them is what's going to be needed to do that."

Wednesday’s win is a step in the right direction. The question is, can Arizona use it as momentum to win consistently?

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