PHOENIX -- Through the first eight games of the season, D-backs outfielder Alek Thomas would show up at the ballpark in a good mood. He was confident that this was going to be the day that he would get that first hit of the season.

And seemingly every time he came to the plate, he would put together a good at-bat. A glance at his Baseball Savant page showed that he was hitting balls hard, not chasing bad pitches and drawing walks.

But at the end of the night, he would head home hitless and, he admitted, a “little sad.”

You can bet on his ride home Saturday night he was wearing a big smile after going 4-for-4 and playing a key role in Arizona’s 12-8 win over the Dodgers at Chase Field.

Thomas was 0-for-16 when he stepped into the batter’s box in the second inning against Noah Syndergaard, but his two-out triple ignited a four-run rally as the D-backs took a lead they would not relinquish.

“It was great,” Thomas said. “It was a good feeling to finally get that first one out of the way and then end up scoring. Good things happened today and it was a great team win, too. I feel like I've been having good at-bats and squaring the ball up, it’s just the results weren't there. So I felt good coming into the game and all the other games, it’s just the results were there today.”

You can probably trace Thomas’ ability to stick with his process this year to the lessons he learned during his rookie campaign last season.

Called up to the big leagues for the first time in May, Thomas played well until a miserable September in which he was 7-for-55. Unlike this year’s tough start, that wore on him.

“I just wasn't confident in myself,” he said this spring, looking back at last year.

With less than 10 days to go in the regular season, Thomas was optioned to Triple-A Reno, a stunning move for a team that was well out of the postseason chase.

“No one wants to get sent down,” Thomas said. “When it happened, I was pretty upset.”

But Thomas was joining a team that was heading to the playoffs, and he wasn’t about to put a damper on that.

“For me, baseball is fun and you never know when it's going to be taken away from you,” Thomas said. “So I just went down there and the group of guys -- I had played with all of them before throughout my career -- and they’re awesome. I went down there and everyone is smiling, so for me to not smile and not have fun would just bring the whole team down and I didn't want to do that.”

Instead, Thomas enjoyed himself as Reno cruised through the playoffs, eventually capturing the Pacific Coast League championship.

“When I look back at it, I think it was good for me,” Thomas said.

Thomas was also grateful for the support he received from D-backs manager Torey Lovullo -- who called Thomas a couple of times during that period to try and keep his spirits up -- as well as the entire big league coaching staff.

“They picked me up,” Thomas said. “There was a lot of love there. I mean, it was pretty cool. Torey called me a few times when I got a call down, and I'm not sure if he does that with everyone else, but it was really cool for him to call me and check on me and ask how I was doing.”

Before Saturday’s game, Lovullo talked about how he was impressed with the way Thomas was handling going hitless and pointed out that, given the quality of his at-bats, the dry spell would not last.

“The highlight was Alek Thomas, for me, in getting his first four hits of the year,” Lovullo said. “He has been grinding and working and just staying with it. I've been telling you guys for the past couple of days with his plate discipline, his ability to lay off pitches that are troublesome to any hitter, he was doing that, and then he started to square up some baseballs. It's easy to get frustrated, and he didn’t. He just kept with it, and it was a good day for him.” 

And no doubt, a happy ride home.