OAKLAND -- The oasis was in reach. Three innings in, and the desperately needed win away from home felt attainable. Jon Duplantier was outstanding his first trip through the A's lineup. Christian Walker homered. There was much baseball yet to be played, yes, but a tinge of optimism hovered.

Instead, it was just a mirage.

Duplantier got the quick hook in the fourth inning and the A’s Chris Bassitt shut down the D-backs' bats. And by the end of it all, Arizona had lost, 5-2, on Tuesday at Oakland Coliseum, their 18th consecutive loss away from Chase Field.

“Things unraveled in the fourth inning,” said manager Torey Lovullo. “We tried to maneuver in the bullpen to salvage a little bit of the situation to stay in the ballgame, but they ended up scoring five runs. That kind of broke the game open.”

Through three innings, the D-backs were in control. Duplantier was a walk shy of perfection with four strikeouts, while Walker connected on a Bassitt offering, depositing it into the left-field stairwell to give Arizona an early lead. That precious road victory seemed attainable.

Then, in the fourth inning, things fell apart. The A’s would score five runs on four hits and four walks, Duplantier’s early-inning success having disappeared. The right-hander was given the hook, and the game was flipped for good.

“I got away from this mentality of execution and then I kind of got into this mentality of ramp up, muscle up, try to do too much and never really got back,” Duplantier said. “I think the first three innings, I did a good job of staying within myself and being very in tune with the present moment. I think in the fourth, I got away from that. I wasn’t necessarily present every pitch.”

There was no singular, knockout blow that did in Duplantier, but rather a series of jabs. Jed Lowrie singled, Matt Olson walked, Mitch Moreland singled, Sean Murphy walked, and just like that, Duplantier was gone.

In for Duplantier came Alex Young, who inherited a bases-loaded, no-out situation with the score tied at one. By the time Young and the D-backs returned to the dugout after roughly a half-hour, the A’s had a four-run lead.

Duplantier’s final line -- three-plus innings, two hits, four runs, three walks -- is a bit deceiving because all the damage came in the fourth inning. Unfortunately for Duplantier, the runs count all the same.

“The thing that I think we’ve seen are these really good moments, and it just lacks consistency,” Lovullo said. “It’s a challenge for a young pitcher. We understand that this is a very challenging level and there’s got to be some growth and development. I think he’s got that type of stuff where he could be a very, very good Major League pitcher for a long, long time. So, it’s just about finding that consistency.”

Duplantier's last outing against Milwaukee had parallels to his Tuesday start in Oakland. The previous outing started off well enough, as Duplantier opened with two scoreless innings, retiring six of the first seven batters he faced. Then, similar to Tuesday, his start derailed as he allowed four runs in the third inning. For Duplantier, who missed all of 2020 with an elbow issue, it’s a matter of rediscovering that ability to clean up messes.

“By no means is this an excuse, but I spent last year hurt. The last time I pitched in a big league game had been 2019,” Duplantier said. “So, I’m not asking for any leeway, I’m not asking for any grace, I’m not asking for any bumpers, nothing like that. I will, though, give myself some grace, because it’s one of those things that I hadn’t found myself in these situations in a minute. So, I have to remember who I am down deep, you know."

The four-run deficit was, in theory, surmountable. After the fourth, the D-backs still had the back half of the game to chip away at the lead. Bassitt, however, kept them in check, allowing two runs across seven innings and, by extension, further extending Arizona’s road woes.

With a loss in the series opener of this two-game set with the A's, the D-backs are now sitting on 44 days since their last win on the road (April 25 in Atlanta). Should they fail to beat Oakland on Wednesday, they’ll have to wait until next week to try and snap the skid.