This was going to be the night the D-backs ended their losing streak. Merrill Kelly cruised through six innings, the offense built an early lead and everything seemed pointed in the right direction.

A three-run rally by the Giants in the eighth inning, though, changed all that and instead of celebrating, the D-backs were left on the wrong end of a 5-4 loss Wednesday night at Chase Field, their 10th straight defeat.

• Box score

It's the D-backs longest losing skid since they also lost 10 in a row in 2010.

Here's a look at three big moments from the game.

Merrill Kelly is pinch-hit for in the sixth inning

Kelly had given up two runs in the top of the sixth, the only two runs he would allow, but at just 81 pitches he likely would have been sent back out for the seventh if Nick Ahmed had not doubled with two outs in the bottom of the sixth.

Ahmed's double brought up Kelly's spot in the order and manager Torey Lovullo had a decision to make: Let Kelly, an extremely poor hitter, bat for himself, or take a shot at adding to the 4-2 lead by sending up pinch-hitter Andrew Young.

"I think I was trading the value of one more inning versus one more run, potentially one or two more runs, and Andrew has been doing a really good job of pinch-hitting," Lovullo said. "I just thought we had the ability to tack on and I liked that matchup."

After Young struck out to end the inning, reliever Taylor Clarke pitched a scoreless seventh before things imploded in the eighth.

"I definitely felt like I could have given us seven [innings]," Kelly said. "But the situation, that’s kind of the tough part, being a starting pitcher in the National League, a guy on second base, we’ve kind of been struggling to get runs across the board and Torey thought that was a good time to try to take advantage and tack on an extra run there. Obviously, as a competitor, I never like coming out of the game, but in that situation, I definitely understood it."

Back-to-back homers by Slater and Vosler

Stefan Crichton allowed a leadoff double in the eighth and two outs later, Lovullo brought in left-hander Alex Young to face the left-handed-hitting Alex Dickerson.

Giants manager Gabe Kapler countered by pinch-hitting right-hander Austin Slater, which is what Lovullo was actually hoping he would do.

Slater hit a 2-2 cutter into the second deck in left field to tie the game.

"We talked about some situations before the game and there were certain matchups we checked off as a group, and one of them was Slater against Young," Lovullo said. "It just didn’t work out. We didn’t throw the pitch where we needed to and you see what the result was. I favored the matchup of Young vs. Slater over Crichton vs. Dickerson. I made a decision that impacted the game and I’ve got to wear that one."

Young then got two strikes on Vosler before he homered to right with what proved to be the winning run.

"It sucks, especially when you’ve lost nine straight," Young said. "Everything is magnified. Any mistake that happens, it’s like the end of the world. I’m being real right now; that’s how I feel. Obviously I wanted to put my team in a chance to win. I let them down."

Ninth inning rally comes up short

When Pavin Smith led off the ninth with a single off Tyler Rogers and speedster Tim Locastro pinch-ran, it seemed the D-backs were in a good position.

But despite singles from Nick Ahmed and Josh Rojas, Locastro was unable to get further than third base and Rogers was able to strike out Ketel Marte and get Eduardo Escobar to ground out to strand the bases loaded.

"It’s not something you’re expecting," Lovullo said of coming up empty in the ninth. "You’ve got the fastest man in baseball at first base and you get two base hits in the inning and you think it’s going to equal a run. Unfortunately it didn’t happen. We built the inning, we had the right guys up in the right situation. We just didn’t execute and that happens sometimes. But we fought. We kept fighting despite some really frustrating times in the eighth and ninth innings."