David Peralta very rarely admits to any type of negative thoughts. He doesn't like the word "frustrating" and he has the glass-is-half-full mentality that comes from having earned his way from independent ball to the big leagues.
But Peralta's slow start at the plate this year certainly had to take its toll on him.
"It's not the start I wanted," said Peralta, who entered Thursday with a .213 batting average.
The answer, he said, was to keep grinding and to trust his process.
The effort and trust were rewarded and a weight was lifted off Peralta's shoulders Thursday when he broke out for seven RBIs to help lead the D-backs past the Reds, 14-11, in 10 innings and give them a three-game sweep at Great American Ball Park.
"Credit to him for staying mentally strong," D-backs infielder Josh Rojas said of Peralta. "That's the biggest thing in this sport, is to stay on the grind and stay focused and the results will come. And today it was one of those days where the results came."
Arizona is 5-2 on its current road trip, which included a four-game set in Washington and has three games left to play in Atlanta.
The D-backs are clearly a team that is starting to feel good about itself after a slow start to the season.
"I mean every time you win, you get more confident, you get more excited," Peralta said. "Now we sweep the Reds and now we're going to have a lot of confidence to go out and play against the Braves. So, we're just going to keep doing what we are doing."
The D-backs' offense was firing on all cylinders in the Reds series, scoring 27 runs, including 11 in the 10th inning over the past two games.
They've done it by embracing an approach that the coaching staff has preached for a while -- patience at the plate. They drew 22 walks in Cincinnati.
And even more surprising, they've climbed from 4-8 to just one game under .500 at 9-10 while missing some key components.
Two of their best hitters -- Ketel Marte and Christian Walker -- are on the injured list. So is sparkplug Tim Locastro. As noted, Peralta had been struggling before Thursday and shortstop Nick Ahmed has gotten off to a dreadful start at the plate.
On the pitching side, the team lost three members of the back-end of its bullpen -- Tyler Clippard and Joakim Soria to injury and Chris Devenski to the restricted list.
So how have they managed to do it?
"Trust, man, trust," Peralta said. "We trust everyone. We're competing, we trust everyone, we never give up. That's what we do every day. It doesn't matter how far ahead we are during the game or how behind we are. We just compete every single at-bat and we trust every single guy who's in the lineup. And the guys who are on the bench? They're always ready to play and do damage."
The D-backs hope they haven't lost another backend bullpen arm. Closer Stefan Crichton had to be removed with one out in the 10th inning after being struck in the right hand by a comebacker.
Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said that Crichton was still undergoing X-rays and being evaluated after the game.
Despite their success in Cincinnati, the D-backs were looking forward to boarding their flight for Atlanta. They battled rain, sleet, hail and snow during their three games vs. the Reds. They had one game suspended and two go extra innings, and the finale lasted four hours, 26 minutes.
"I'm excited to get out of this weather," Peralta said.
Although with the way he appears to be heating up, the temperature shouldn’t be an issue.
Senior Reporter Steve Gilbert has covered the D-backs for MLB.com since 2001.