In an injury-riddled first half during which little went the D-backs’ way, Merrill Kelly was a reliable presence in their starting rotation. And of late, he has been dealing, one of the bright spots in some otherwise tough times.

“He’s been our horse this year,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. “He’s been very constant, the guy that hasn’t missed a start.”

Things didn’t seem great, though, when Kelly exited Sunday’s 7-4 loss to the Dodgers in the sixth inning. The right-hander didn’t appear to be moving well while walking behind the Dodger Stadium mound, prompting a quick visit from head athletic trainer Ken Crenshaw with Lovullo soon following to remove Kelly from the game.

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However, the reason for Kelly’s departure was a right leg cramp. So the D-backs appear to have avoided what could have been much worse news for their rotation. Especially considering their staff is finally getting close to full strength, with Taylor Widener having returned from the injured list on Friday and Zac Gallen and Madison Bumgarner potentially coming back later this month.

“[Kelly] started to feel some things prior to asking for us to come out,” Lovullo said. “But look, it’s hot out here, he gave us all he could. He went as hard as he could for as long as he could and that’s all we ask, but he’s doing OK.”

Lovullo doesn’t believe Kelly is in jeopardy of missing his next start, which will come sometime during the first turn through the rotation in the second half.

Before Kelly exited, he continued his recent hot streak by holding Los Angeles to one run in 5 1/3 innings. He gave up only four hits, the last of which was a one-out double to Max Muncy in the sixth on his 88th and final pitch.

Over his past five starts, Kelly is 3-0 with a 2.05 ERA, 21 strikeouts and three walks in 30 2/3 innings.

“I felt like he was in a really good spot, commanding the baseball, giving us a chance to win a ballgame,” Lovullo said.

After the Dodgers scored 22 runs and hit eight homers on Saturday night -- resulting in the most lopsided loss in D-backs history -- Kelly’s lone run allowed came on a Mookie Betts leadoff homer in the first. However, Los Angeles came back, tying the game with a three-run rally in the eighth against right-hander Noé Ramirez and winning it on a Muncy walk-off three-run home run off righty J.B. Bukauskas in the ninth.

Arizona has struggled to make routine plays in the outfield quite a few times in the first half. That continued during Sunday’s eighth inning when Josh Reddick couldn’t haul in a Justin Turner fly ball to right, which dropped in for an RBI single and kept the bases loaded with no outs. The D-backs led, 4-1, at the time.

“It’s frustrating. They’re not trying to, I know that,” Lovullo said. “It’s all maddening, it’s all craziness. But it’s part of the game and we’ve got to overcome and we’ve got to fight. The next guy’s got to pick up the situation and execute and pick up his teammate, those are things that we preach here. But there’s certainly some plays there that I felt like we should have been able to make that would have changed the ending.”

The D-backs ended the first half with a 26-66 record, their .283 winning percentage marking the worst at the All-Star break in the club’s 24-year history. It was a tough 3 1/2 months that included losing streaks of 13 and 17 games (the latter being a franchise record) and a stretch in which it dropped an MLB-record 24 straight on the road.

Arizona could have earned back-to-back series victories with a win Sunday, after taking two of three from Colorado earlier in the week. Instead, it fell to 1-18-1 over its past 20 series.

“Losing stinks and nobody likes it,” Lovullo said. “We’ve got to complete the cycle, we’ve got to go out and finish the job and expect to get the job done. Going to a place where we want to go, we’ve got to win these baseball games and close out good teams.”