Arizona Diamondbacks lose their 20th straight road game, two shy of MLB record

The Arizona Diamondbacks inched toward history on Monday night, doing so not with a stumble or a gaffe, but with a normal loss. They were beat, plain and simple. These days, for this team, those are almost like victories.

Their 5-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park was their 20th consecutive loss on the road, moving them into a tie with the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics for the third-longest streak in the modern era (since 1900). They are two away from tying the record, co-owned by the 1943 Philadelphia Athletics and the 1963 New York Mets, both of whom dropped 22 road games in a row.

If the Diamondbacks were to be swept in this four-game set by the Giants, they would own the record outright, a fact manager Torey Lovullo, who is normally relentlessly positive with reporters, seemed to be well-aware of as he voiced frustration after the game.

“We’re in a grind right now,” Lovullo said. “I don’t know where it’s at, what’s been happening or the reasons, but we’re working hard to figure that out. I know one thing: We didn’t come up here to San Francisco to get our ass kicked four games in a row. I know I didn’t. I know the coaches didn’t. And I know for darn sure the players didn’t, either. So we’ll get after it tomorrow.”

The loss was the Diamondbacks’ 11th in a row, giving them two losing streaks of 11 or longer (the first was 13) in the past 30 days. They have lost 25 of their past 27 and 34 of 39, the worst 39-game stretch in club history.

The outcome amounted to a single loss, one in which they did not play particularly poorly -- at least relative to the low bar they have set in recent weeks -- but given that it has come amidst such a stretch, catcher Carson Kelly was asked if it were hard to view it in that context -- that is, as a loss that, in a normal season, would be easy for a team to put in the rearview mirror. Kelly said that letting losses pile up would be the worst thing the team could do.

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“If you start thinking that way, we’re going to be in an even worse spot,” he said. “Obviously, we haven’t played up to what we know we can. The only way you’re going to get out of this is, you got to keep going. If you continue to look at the past and sulk on that, it’s just going to continue to get worse and worse. We’re doing a pretty good job of staying present every single day. We’re moving on to that next one.

“That’s something you learn at a young age. This game has a lot of failure. You can’t run from it. You have to embrace it and continue to move forward. We’re doing that. It’s tough. Don’t get me wrong. It’s tough. But we’re going to continue to keep fighting.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Diamondbacks lose 20th straight road game, two shy of MLB record