TORONTO -- Patrick Corbin understood what it would take to have success against the powerful Blue Jays lineup. He relied on his fastball all night and, in the process, helped the D-backs to a fifth consecutive win.
The 26-year-old went 6 1/3 innings, surrendering just two earned runs on eight hits while striking out three as Arizona doubled up Toronto, 4-2, in Interleague Play.
"This team has a lot of power. We were just trying to keep 'em off balance, got back to the fastball inside, and tried to get as many ground balls as we could and keep the ball on the ground," Corbin said.
Corbin (4-6, 4.63 ERA) has now gone 6 1/3 innings in three consecutive games. Tuesday was his eighth quality start. The left-hander is 4-1 with a 2.68 ERA in eight road starts, and the D-backs are 6-2 in his starts away from home.
"That's what we built this team around," said manager Chip Hale of Arizona's starting pitching. "That was kind of what we hung our hat on was our starters every night, whether it was [Zack] Greinke at one or Robbie [Ray] in the five hole, they're going to give us 6-7 innings every time. We're starting to get it going."
Corbin got into a jam in the seventh. After issuing a one-out walk to Ezequiel Carrera, Devon Travis singled, putting runners on the corners for Josh Donaldson. Hale turned to the D-backs' bullpen and Jake Barrett, ending Corbin's night.
Barrett induced a broken-bat grounder from Donaldson, on which the D-backs were able to swing an inning-ending 4-3 double play to eliminate the threat.
Corbin, who has walked three batters in back-to-back starts for the first time since April 2013, wasn't particularly happy with the ball-four call to Carrera.
"In that situation there, to get two outs in the seventh, it was a big pitch," Corbin said. "But Jake came in, got a ground ball -- which is huge -- and Donaldson had some good swings on me so he came in, shattered his bat and got two outs."
Hale believed the 3-2 pitch to Carrera was borderline.
"I think that was a pretty good pitch. Things happen, we thought it was a good pitch," Hale said. "But we didn't want to dwell on it. Once it happens, so be it, things always even out over time. You just got to forget about it, and Jake did a nice job of picking us up."
In total, Corbin induced 12 groundouts in the victory. He credited his ability to locate pitches in a timely fashion.
"I thought my changeup today was really good, kept [the ball] down and the fastball inside, was able to locate that today and got some early, quick outs with that pitch," he said. "It seemed like they were laying off the slider -- that was down, so I had to throw that more for strikes as we got later in the game. Really, was just working off that fastball inside."
With the win, Corbin avoided back-to-back losses. He now has an 11-6 record over his last 22 starts of six-plus innings pitched.