PHOENIX -- There are no easy answers for the D-backs right now. No magic words that will get them back on track. It comes down to finding a way to get the hits when they need them and make the right pitches when they have to.

The D-backs fell to the Mariners, 5-2, on Friday night, continuing a funk that has seen them drop eight of their last 11, 12 of their last 17 and 17 of their last 24. They now trail the first-place Dodgers by four games in the NL West and they’re a game out of the Wild Card picture.

“We’ve got to find a way to just keep grinding,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. “Keep fighting. We're going to find our way out of this one way or another, because that's a very talented group of players inside of that clubhouse. But it's not going to happen with just words, we’ve got to match the words with actions.”

Despite his team’s struggles, Lovullo has not lost faith in a team that was a season-best 16 games above the .500 mark at the beginning of July.

“I'll never stop believing in this team and their ability to go out and win a baseball game,” Lovullo said.

Friday night’s game lasted 2 hours, 53 minutes, but just 15 pitches into it, the Mariners had scored four runs off Arizona starter Tommy Henry and the way the offense has been going lately, it felt like a deep hole.

“It happened really quick,” Henry said. “Honestly, felt like I made decent pitches, not great, but I think it was one of those things where they came out with the right game plan. Kind of got to tip my cap to that. Didn't make my adjustments soon enough, obviously, and four runs happened really, really fast. Not the way we wanted to start this game off.”

The Mariners seemed to know that Henry was going to be in the strike zone with his offspeed pitches and they jumped on them.

To Henry’s credit, though, he made the adjustment and did not allow another run the rest of the way, lasting six innings.

The offense could not do much against Seattle starter Logan Gilbert, who held Arizona scoreless through six innings before being tagged with two runs in the seventh, when the D-backs were able to push across a pair of runs on a wild pitch and a throwing error by Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh.

Lovullo believes that the team as a whole can do what Henry did Friday, fight through this stretch and come out in better shape.

“We're going to stand on our values -- love, trust, commitment and effort,” Lovullo said. “We're going to be adaptable. We're going to be prepared, and those are not negotiable. That's what we got to rely on and stand on through these tough times. As I've told you before, these are situations that happen in baseball. I’m not going to say every team goes through them, but several do. I think it builds character and toughness. And once we do come out the other end, I think we're going to be a much, much better baseball team and a much more equipped baseball team, but it's part of growing up.”