PHILADELPHIA -- A steady rain fell during the early afternoon Saturday at Citizens Bank Park, leaving the tarp on the field until just before game time.

The skies cleared up. The game began as scheduled. Only the D-backs’ bats didn’t quite follow suit.

Phillies ace Zack Wheeler cruised through six innings and Arizona could not convert a pair of chances against Philadelphia’s bullpen, losing 4-0 to the red-hot Phillies.

• Box score

“Losing stinks,” said manager Torey Lovullo. “Sometimes the way you lose makes it even worse. I feel like we were up to the challenge, we knew what kind of stuff Wheeler had. We just never got it going.”

Wheeler carved up the D-backs (28-33), yielding two hits and striking out eight without issuing a walk over six innings, as the Phillies (30-29) won their ninth in a row.

The bats finally woke up with Wheeler out of the game. David Peralta and Alek Thomas hit back-to-back two-out singles off Jeurys Familia in the seventh. Geraldo Perdomo followed with a walk, loading the bases for pinch-hitter Ketel Marte.

Marte barreled a ball 104.4 mph to deep center, but it was hit right at Odúbel Herrera, ending the threat.

“I had a couple of really nice pieces sitting on the bench today and I knew that,” Lovullo said. (Carson Kelly, who made his return from the injured list, and Jordan Luplow were also used as pinch-hitters.) “I thought Ketel’s was a quality at-bat. That’s all we want [is] to be able to walk up there and give us a quality at-bat, and he did that.”

Josh Rojas led off the ninth with a single. Thomas added another with two outs, but Perdomo grounded out to second to end the game.

The D-backs, who entered the game second in the NL in strikeouts, struck out 11 times. They were shut out for the third time in seven games, falling to 3-6 on their current road trip, which began with promise amid an eight-run outburst June 3 in Pittsburgh.

“I think that first night in Pittsburgh led to three or four games of trying to do too much with the barrel,” Lovullo said. “Trying to catch out front and drive some balls out of the park. I think we slowed some things down since then. [Today] we hit a couple of balls hard in the right situation but had nothing to show for it.”

The game began with Daulton Varsho and Pavin Smith striking out. Rojas then grounded out.

“I feel like I’ve killed a couple of rallies the last two games,” Rojas said. “Especially hitting at the top of the lineup right now.”

The Phillies took the lead in the bottom of the first and never trailed.

Rhys Hoskins got it started with a one-out double to left. Two batters later, Nick Castellanos drove him home with a hard single to left. Rookie Bryson Stott drilled a 2-2 pitch to the right-center-field seats with two outs in the second to make it 3-0 Phillies.

“I’m usually disappointed if I don’t put up a zero, early, late, any time,” said Madison Bumgarner, who allowed three runs (one earned) on six hits and two walks over five innings. He struck out four, giving him 1,993 for his career. Bumgarner is 0-5 in six starts since May 10.

The Phillies won nine in a row for the first time since 2011. Bumgarner, then in his second full season pitching for the Giants, was the losing pitcher in the seventh game of that streak.

“It doesn’t mean you can’t change it any moment, but momentum is a real thing in baseball,” said Bumgarner.