As the Dodgers put together a five-run third inning and steadily built an eight-run lead through five innings, it seemed that the D-backs were going to go down meekly Sunday afternoon.

A six-run rally in the eighth, though, showed that the D-backs still had some fight in them, much to the delight of the non-Dodgers fans who were a part of the 31,661 at Chase Field.

In the end it was still a loss, this one by a 9-8 margin, and continued for the D-backs what has been a nightmarish stretch.

• Box score

Arizona has now lost 17 in a row, 31 of 33 and 40 of 45.

"No, never," veteran outfielder Josh Reddick said of whether he had ever been a part of a streak like this. "It’s pretty tough to tackle. A lot of teams go through losing streaks every year, it’s just about how you get out of them and what you do and move on. This is going to become an afterthought. It’s just been lasting a lot longer than any of us would have hoped, liked or enjoyed. We’ve just got to keep doing our jobs, going out and doing what we did in that eighth inning today."

Yes, the eighth inning was by far the best inning the D-backs have put together during this stretch, but by that point they were down 9-2.

Arizona sent 11 men to the plate in the eighth and scored six runs, including two-run singles by Ketel Marte and Reddick along with a bases-loaded walk. The rally finally came to an end when Victor González got Josh Rojas to bounce out to first with runners on the corners.

"I think it says a lot about our mindset," Reddick said of the rally. "The way we’ve been playing, the way these last 30 days have been for us, I know it’s been pretty hellacious. For us to go down early and to grind back and put them on the edge right there, I think that’s a big step. We’re grinding it out, trying to do our best to stay in games. Signs like that are always positive. You can get out of this game really quick when a team like that puts you down early."

Former D-backs outfielder AJ Pollock delivered a two-run double in the fourth and an RBI single in the fifth. He feels for his former teammates on the other side of the field.

"You wouldn't wish that on anyone," Pollock said. "They're struggling. Everyone [over there] that I'm talking to and ask how they're doing is saying they're grinding. It's a tough game and it's one of those where you play every day and it just keeps coming after you and after you and you lose a little bit of your edge. And there's some really good teams out there and they can take advantage of it. They're playing hard. You see that. Down a bunch of runs and you see they're still playing. They're still playing hard."

Manager Torey Lovullo was fine with his team’s effort and liked the fight that they showed, but at this point in the streak, he's not going to settle for moral victories.

A comeback of that magnitude should not have been necessary in his opinion. Starter Alex Young walked two and gave up seven hits in just three innings while Corbin Martin, who came in after him, walked three and allowed seven hits in 3 2/3 innings.

"We got there by making plenty of mistakes," Lovullo said. "For me, it’s about putting the ball on the plate. I was adding up through five innings and I think they had [18] baserunners. That’s unacceptable. We’ve got to put the baseball on the plate. We’ve got to attack and follow gameplans. We’ve got to expect good results. That was unacceptable what we saw on the mound. We put ourselves in that position. But look, I’m happy with what we did [the comeback], however, we built our own situation that we’ve got to be better at."