LOS ANGELES -- Josh Rojas swung, missed, tossed his bat aside and threw his helmet down in frustration. Two baserunners were stranded, and the D-backs had missed an opportunity in the seventh inning on Wednesday afternoon.

It was a frequent sight for Arizona over these past three days in Los Angeles -- and really over the past three years here.

The D-backs mostly played competitive contests during their four-game series at Dodger Stadium, including Wednesday afternoon’s 5-3 loss. Three of the Dodgers’ wins were by two or fewer runs. But Arizona couldn’t come up with big hits, and it couldn’t keep Los Angeles off the scoreboard when its lineup started clicking.

“This was a tough series,” Rojas said. “But I don’t think, even coming into today, that we ever felt out of it. I think we felt like we always had a chance to beat them, and this series just wasn’t our series.”

Arizona has lost nine consecutive games at Dodger Stadium and 18 of its past 19 at the ballpark. Since the start of 2019, the D-backs are 3-23 at Chavez Ravine.

Here are three reasons why the team is leaving Los Angeles with four more losses.

1) The starting rotation looked more beatable than it’s been
Every rotation has ups and downs throughout the long season. But for much of the past month, the D-backs’ five starters experienced success together. That’s why Arizona entered this series with the second-best rotation ERA in MLB at 2.51.

Over the four games in Los Angeles, Madison Bumgarner, Tyler Gilbert, Merrill Kelly and Zach Davies combined to allow 22 earned runs over 16 2/3 innings for an ERA of 11.88.

The big blow against Davies in the finale came in the fourth, when Justin Turner belted a three-run homer that put Los Angeles ahead, 4-2. Davies was replaced to begin the fifth after allowing five runs on seven hits.

Bumgarner and Kelly have been among the top starters in the National League early in the season, while Davies had posted a 2.77 ERA over his previous five outings. So Davies is confident these types of tough starts won’t become the new norm.

“It’s a bump in the road, it happens during the course of a season,” Davies said. “Nobody’s let down by it, nobody’s changed their attitude on it. I’m not really worried about anything.”

2) Several key hitters still haven’t broken out
D-backs hitting coach Joe Mather was recently discussing Pavin Smith’s May struggles. After going 1-for-4 on Wednesday, Smith is batting .179 in 15 games this month.

“I think sooner than later we’ll see Pavin Smith be Pavin Smith -- line drives all over the field, left-center gap, taking his walks,” Mather said. “For me right now, it’s more ebb and flow of the season and making sure he sticks to who he is.”

The same could be said about several other Arizona hitters. Key lineup fixtures such as David Peralta (.195 average in May) and Smith haven’t gotten going, and many Arizona players have a season average in the low to mid-.200s.

The D-backs went 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position on Wednesday, which included a sequence in the fifth in which they loaded the bases with no outs against Walker Buehler and came away with no runs. If Arizona can get more of its bats to heat up, situations like that could go differently, and it would help turn games the other way.

3) The Dodgers are a really good team
Sometimes it’s as simple as this in baseball -- teams with a lot of good players are tough to beat. Even though the Dodgers had lost five of seven games entering this series, they have a roster filled with sluggers and All-Stars.

“This lineup that you face, there’s no time to take a breath,” Rojas said. “You’ve got one through nine [who] are all extremely good hitters, and you have to be locked in for every pitch. You get done with games like this and series like this and you get to finally sit down and take a deep breath and you’re like, ‘Wow.’”

The D-backs have a younger team. And eventually, they’re hoping to get back to having success in these types of games in Los Angeles that they feel are winnable.

“I believe that we can match up with them, it’s just very tough,” Rojas said. “You have to be locked in, you can’t make mistakes and you have to go out there and concentrate and be prepared for every pitch.”

With 12 more games against the Dodgers this season, the D-backs will have plenty more opportunities to try to do just that.