The D-backs gave the Mariners five free baserunners Sunday and Seattle took advantage, driving home four of them, as Arizona took a 7-3 loss at Chase Field.

With the defeat, the D-backs ended their six-game homestand against the Dodgers and Mariners on a two-game losing streak. They opened it with a pair of losses as well, but they'd won the final game of the Dodgers series and were hoping to capture the series with the Mariners.

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Arizona starter Luke Weaver was not sharp early on, walking three in the first two innings and the Mariners plated two of them to take a 2-1 lead.

Justin Dunn started for the Mariners and struggled mightily with his command, walking five batters in the first two innings before being removed to start the third. The difference was that the D-backs could only turn one of those walks into a run.

Here are three takeaways from the six-game homestand as the D-backs head on the road to Anaheim and Houston:

1) The D-backs front office is still sorting out the best way to evaluate this season

After losing the first two games against the Dodgers, the D-backs had dropped 18 of 20 games, which dropped them from the final playoff spot to being all but out of the postseason hunt. At 17-32, Arizona has the second-worst record in the National League.

And it left general manager Mike Hazen and his staff trying to figure out how much stock they should put into a 20-game stretch. While it’s one-third of a 60-game season, it’s not nearly as significant during a typical 162-game campaign.

“Prior to this 20-game stretch, we were 13-11. It’s hard to objectively put my finger on that," Hazen said Thursday. "I continue to ask myself the question -- and all of us in the front office -- to what degree you lay any type of credibility onto that?"

How the D-backs' front office answers that question could go a long way in determining how much change the Arizona roster undergoes during the offseason.

2) The offense needs work

Sunday’s game was a microcosm of the season -- the D-backs struggled to cash in on scoring opportunities.

Dunn walked the bases loaded in the second inning with one out and it was a chance for the D-backs to blow the game open early. Instead, Josh VanMeter and Christian Walker both struck out to end the inning.

It’s something that happened to them often during the 20-game stretch -- the offense would go quiet for long periods of time. If it were just a one-year thing, Hazen would be more apt to write it off as such, but the offense also caused struggles for them during stretches in 2018 and '19, when losing skids late in the year caused them to tumble out of postseason contention.

“I think we’re forced to have to view some things through that prism through the sense of facing some of the realities, which are that I think this isn’t the first sort of period offensively we’ve gone through some of these spells,” Hazen said. “To what degree, what characteristics, what are we bringing to the table every day that is causing that to happen? We need to take a look at [those things].”

3) The bullpen is going to need to be rebuilt

The Mariners tacked on runs late in the game against Arizona's bullpen, putting up two in the sixth, two in the eighth and one in the ninth, and the extra runs made it harder for the D-backs to come back.

As part of the reshuffling at the Trade Deadline, Hazen traded closer Archie Bradley to the Reds. One of the first pitchers that D-backs manager Torey Lovullo gave closing opportunities to was Kevin Ginkel, who was impressive last September.

Ginkel, though, wasn’t sharp after the recent promotion, and he was optioned to the team’s alternate training site on Friday. He could return before the end of the season to see if he can finish strong, and young pitchers like Keury Mella, Joel Payamps and Riley Smith will get chances to show what they can do.

The D-backs hold contract options on veterans Hector Rondón and Junior Guerra that they will need to decide on, and they’ll also need to find themselves a closer either on the free-agent market or via trade.

One way or another, the bullpen figures to look different come 2021.