Pitching, Pollock and Peralta power D'backs

PHOENIX—Two starting pitchers are hurt. So is the slugging third baseman. The team’s best player is in one of his worst slumps. And yet the Arizona Diamondbacks keep winning, taking two of three from the World Series champion Houston Astros over the weekend.

After going 4-3 last week against Houston and the Los Angeles Dodgers — the teams that played in last year ’s World Series — Arizona still has the best record in the National League at 23-11, 3½ games ahead of the Colorado Rockies in the NL West.

“I don’t think we were worried about it,” D’backs manager Torey Lovullo said of last week’s games. “We love these challenges.”

The Diamondbacks, idle Monday before a two-game set with the Dodgers in Los Angeles, still haven’t lost a series this season (they split with the Dodgers 2-2).

They have lost two of their fifive starting pitchers, Taijuan Walker for the season with Tommy John surgery and Robbie Ray for at least a month with a strained right oblique. And Paul Goldschmidt has not been himself, batting .225 with four home runs and 11 RBIs. Looking uncomfortable at the plate, he has struck out 45 times in 110 at-bats. Goldschmidt is hitless in his last 23 at-bats. He went 1 for 25 in the home stand.

The most consistent offense has come from A. J. Pollock and David Peralta, especially Pollock. The center fielder, who also has had some defensive gems, was named National League player of the month for April and player of the week for the fifirst week of May. In the week ending May 6, Pollock hit .423 with four home runs, eight RBIs, five runs scored, a double and a triple. He drove in the winning run with a two-out bases-loaded single in the ninth inning of Saturday’s 4-3 victory and, on Sunday, he tripled in the tying run and scored the go-ahead run. Pollock is hitting .306 with 10 home runs and 29 RBIs.

Peralta has been the other rock of the offense. Batting in the leadoff spot, he’s hitting .295 with six home runs and 19 RBIs. The rest of the offense, still without injured third baseman Jake Lamb, has been inconsistent. But the pitching has been strong. The D’backs lead the NL and are second to Houston in the majors with a 3.05 team ERA.