Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen doesn’t want a let-up after hot start

SAN FRANCISCO – Diamondbacks General Manager Mike Hazen wants his team to enjoy its hot start. He just doesn’t want anyone to forget all the things they did to make it happen.

“It’s all positive getting off to a good start,” Hazen, the club’s first-year GM, said. “It’s something where guys can build confidence. They can feel good about themselves. I think it helps build a good atmosphere on a daily basis because at the end of the night, you’re shaking hands a lot.

“We do need to keep it in perspective and make sure that everyone understands, all the way through the organization, that we have a lot of work to do and keep doing those things. And remind ourselves that how you get to this point in time with your record is through all the work that got put in. And that can’t stop, even through a long season.”

The Diamondbacks entered Wednesday night’s series finale at AT&T Park tied for the best start in franchise history after nine games at 7-2. It was also the best record in the majors, a half-game better than two other surprise clubs, the Cincinnati Reds and Los Angeles Angels, both of whom were 6-2.

The Diamondbacks have been getting contributions from everywhere on the roster. Their starting rotation owns a 3.04 ERA, third-best in the league. Their bullpen ranks eighth at 4.25, which isn’t great but qualifies as a significant improvement over last year’s team, which had the majors’ fourth-worst ERA at 4.94.

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And, of course, the offense has been tremendous, ranking among the league leaders in most categories even after scoring just eight runs in the past three games.

They’ve been at their best this season not only rallying from deficits in the middle innings, but also delivering with runners in scoring position, with hits coming in big moments.

It happened again late in Tuesday night’s 4-3 win over the Giants, when Chris Iannetta lined a run-scoring single in the eighth inning to give them an insurance run that turned out to be important.

Hazen likes the fact that his team’s offense hasn’t been overly reliant on just one or two hot hitters. He wants to say that sort of one-through-nine mentality will be this club’s identity, but he’s hesitant to make any declarations so early in the season.

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“Watching us come back from early deficits, I think, shows a level of confidence in each other no matter what the situation presents,” he said. “I think not only showing the ability to come back gives confidence to your team, I think it plants seeds in the other team that this team is not just going to roll over if we go up by two or three runs, so we’d better stay on our game.”

But, really, there hasn’t been much to dislike about the way the Diamondbacks have played. Hazen knows this, but he knows there’s another 5 1/2 months worth of games to play.

“We know it’s the first week of the season and we haven’t earned anything yet,” he said. “We have to keep earning it. We’re playing some good teams, which is good. I think it’s a good mark for us to measure ourselves against in a lot of ways, but there’s a long way to go.”

Reach Piecoro at (602) 444-8680 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @nickpiecoro.