SEATTLE -- The good news for the Diamondbacks is that their series with the Mariners is over and they're headed home.
The bad news is the schedule gets no easier, as the two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers will be waiting for them at Chase Field on Monday night for the first of a four-game set.
Arizona won't have time to wallow about Sunday afternoon's 3-2 loss to Seattle in 10 innings, its second 10-inning loss of the series, and will try to find a way to get going again offensively after being held to three runs over the final two games of the series.
"Just continue to grind," starter Merrill Kelly said of the mindset heading into the Dodgers series. "Obviously the first night and today we lost in extra innings, one-run games, so I think we're still playing good baseball. I think that [the Mariners] have a really good pitching staff. You look top to bottom, you look at their starters, some of the best in the league, and then their bullpen is just as good coming in behind them."
The Diamondbacks came into the series red-hot, having won 11 of their previous 13 games to climb as high as the top of the NL Wild Card standings.
All 13 of those games came against either the Rockies or the Giants, the two worst teams record-wise in the NL. By contrast, the Mariners are leading the AL West and were picked by a lot of prognosticators to be a favorite to take on the Dodgers in the World Series.
"This game is humbling," Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. "We came in here, we were playing very good baseball. I thought we did a lot right, but there were some very critical moments today and in the other two games that we lost that we just didn't execute at the high level that we've gotten used to. That's the difference in wins and losses. We lost two games in a walk-off fashion. That's heartbreaking, it's brutal. But these guys will rebound."
Lovullo talks often about "winning the margins" or "winning the inch," which means doing the little things right over the course of a game.
Against a Mariners pitching staff that is on a roll and an offense that has been slugging homers, the margin for error was a lot smaller than it was the previous two weeks.
In both 10-inning losses, the Diamondbacks were able to get the automatic runner from second to third with just one out, but could not get him in.
On Sunday, Jose Fernandez sacrificed Ildemaro Vargas from second to third to open the 10th, and Gabriel Moreno drew a walk. Pinch-hitter Adrian Del Castillo, though, struck out and Ketel Marte grounded out to end the threat.
The Mariners were then able to win it on Victor Robles' infield single.
"We were looking to cash in a run there, bring in Paul [Sewald] and try to hang on," Lovullo said of the 10th. "I thought we did a lot right throughout the course of this game today to put ourselves in a situation to score runs. We just couldn't cash in with a big hit. That was the theme in the games here in Seattle."
While the three-game sweep paused the Diamondbacks’ momentum, they maintain their confidence is high heading into their next test.
It will be Arizona's second look at the Dodgers, but its first since the opening series of the season when the Diamondbacks were swept in three games in Los Angeles.
"I don't think anybody has any doubt that we're still playing good ball, and we're still a good team," Kelly said. "It'll be nice to be back home. For some reason, for me, I don't know if everybody else, this road trip -- even though it was only a week -- felt long. But I think it'll be good to get home and sleep in our own beds, and we’ve got to pick up right where we left off, and keep trying to keep grinding at-bats and keep going."