CINCINNATI -- Lacking confidence has rarely -- if ever -- been an issue for Reds reliever Amir Garrett, who imagined bringing his dominant personality to save situations and posting zeroes as often as possible. But so far this season, little has gone Garrett's way and it's costing his team some games.

Garrett played a significant role in back-to-back losses to Arizona. The left-hander blew a three-run lead in the top of the ninth inning before the Reds went on to lose, 8-5, to the D-backs in 10 innings on Wednesday at Great American Ball Park. During the resumption of a suspended game earlier in the day, Garrett was the losing pitcher for putting on baserunners that led to the go-ahead run scoring in a 5-4 defeat.

"“I’ll tell you right now it’s a very tough time for me. Nothing is clicking right now," Garrett said. "But I’m still as confident as ever. I’m still staying positive is the main thing. It is April 21 or whatever. My teammates are going to need me to turn it around and turn it around quick. These last two games should’ve been ballgames we should have won. By my play on the field, I didn’t allow us to get that. I put them on my shoulders, man. These last two games were on me. They were 100 percent on me."

Reds starter Tyler Mahle largely dominated from the mound for the Reds as he worked into the seventh inning. Mahle pitched 6 2/3 scoreless innings and Tejay Antone followed with a scoreless 1 1/3 innings out of the bullpen. But their good work was undone by another rough appearance from Garrett, who gave up two walks and the game-tying three-run home run to Josh VanMeter in the top of the ninth inning.

Garrett has a 16.20 ERA in his six appearances this season with nine earned runs, nine hits, seven walks and three homers allowed in only five innings. 

"I feel good. My slider is not worth anything right now," Garrett said. "I’m falling behind in counts. I think it’s me not trusting my abilities right now at the moment. Like I said, that can be fixed. It can take a day for it to be fixed. All I've got to do is get that one clean one out of the way and it’s going to be a domino effect from there." 

Garrett was extremely tough on lefty hitters last season but they are batting .444 with five walks in 2021. Both of his walks and the VanMeter homer were by lefty hitters.

In a 4-4 game during the eighth inning of Tuesday’s game vs. Arizona, Garrett replaced Antone and walked his first batter, followed by a double. On Saturday vs. Cleveland, Garrett was in trouble with runners on the corners and no outs in the eighth inning when Joey Votto helped turn a triple play.

Manager David Bell pointed to Garrett missing much of Spring Training with a left forearm strain as one reason for his early struggles, even though he retired 12 of the 13 batters he faced in four games without allowing a hit.

With a three-run lead in the night game Wednesday, Bell saw an opportunity for Garrett to find himself on the mound.

"Amir's going to continue to pitch. He's going to pitch in important spots," Bell said. "He's still a very good pitcher. Amir's going to be fine. He's going through a spot where he's just not as sharp as we've seen him."

Antone, Sims and Sean Doolittle were used in the first game. Bell did not want to stick with Antone for the ninth despite his strong pitching and 0.84 ERA.

"It was asking a lot of Tejay after last night. I would not have felt good about throwing him another inning in the ninth and we had Amir ready to go," Bell said. That's going to be a spot where Amir's going to get the job done -- didn't happen tonight, but felt good about the way we used those guys."

The Reds had a chance to win the game in the bottom of the ninth when Kyle Farmer hit a two-out broken bat double into right field. Running from first base, Mark Payton hesitated around second base to see if Kole Calhoun would catch the ball. Payton resumed his sprint and was waved around third base but was thrown out at the plate by a perfect throw from Calhoun.

Arizona batted around in the top of the 10th inning and scored five runs against Cionel Pérez and José De León to blow the game open. Cincinnati has a three-game losing streak for the first time in 2021.

"It stinks right now," Garrett said. "It’s embarrassing that I’m pitching like this because I’m way better than this. I’m way better than this. I’m going to go home, watch some video, just continue to work and that’s all I’m going to do. Come ready for tomorrow and the next day after that."