PHOENIX -- Their homestand didn't necessarily go the way they wanted, but the Diamondbacks finished it on the right note.
Behind another good outing from Michael Soroka, the Diamondbacks beat the Nationals, 5-1, on Sunday afternoon to avoid a sweep in the three-game series. They finished up their week at home with a 3-4 mark.
"Probably an incomplete grade," manager Torey Lovullo said when asked to assess the homestand. "Nothing overly alarming, and nothing to get overly excited about. I want to come home and win baseball games."
It's been a bit of an up-and-down stretch for the Diamondbacks. They dominated a run of 13 straight games against the NL's two worst teams, going a combined 11-2 against the Rockies and Giants.
They got swept in Seattle before coming home to face the Dodgers for four games.
Arizona held its own, splitting that series and believing it had some momentum after winning the final game.
Then the Nationals came into Chase Field and thumped the Diamondbacks -- 14-1 on Friday night and 6-1 on Saturday afternoon.
"We just ran into a little bit of a buzzsaw," Lovullo said of the first two games against the Nationals. "The Dodgers are a good team. Maybe we let our guard down a little bit and we got punched in the face the past couple days. I don't like when that happens. So we got to be ready, no matter who we're playing."
Having Soroka on the mound certainly helps things. The right-hander has been tremendous for the Diamondbacks since signing a one-year contract last December.
Though the “win” stat has become less and less important over the years, Soroka's eight wins still stand out. But more importantly, he's been a model of consistency, going at least five innings in 12 of his 13 starts and allowing more than three runs in a start only three times.
"He's healthy," Lovullo said. "I think that's the most important thing. When he has good health, he's going to go out there and he's going to follow a game plan and keep us in a baseball game. But it's been pretty dominant. He's been really, really good."
Soroka said he didn't feel his command was necessarily the best early in Sunday’s win, but you'd be hard-pressed to know that if you just looked at the results.
Through the first five innings, Soroka allowed just one hit -- a solo homer to CJ Abrams in the second.
"He did a really good job of throwing a ton of strikes," Nationals manager Blake Butera said. "He was in the zone a ton, and he was landing everything. I know he has a bunch of pitches, we knew that coming into it. He just landed everything and kept our guys off balance."
The Diamondbacks (34-31) now head out on the road, where they will face the Marlins and the Reds for three games each.
"Obviously, last couple games we kind of fell into a rut a little bit. But again, this team's just so talented it's bound to start, kind of, coming to show a little bit more than I think it has," Soroka said. "We're in a decent place as far as standings go, and looking to make some headway here and have a good road trip."