PHOENIX -- Sunday was setting up perfectly for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

They had built a one-run lead against the Pirates heading into the ninth inning and it looked like another game in which they had done just enough to win. A victory would’ve been their fifth in a row, a season high, and with the Mets falling to the Braves, Arizona was set to move ahead of New York for the final NL Wild Card spot.

Then came the ninth inning.

“That’s why you play 27 outs,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said.

It was the final out that proved to be the issue.

Pinch-hitter Rowdy Tellez doubled to lead off the ninth against closer Paul Sewald, who proceeded to strike out the next two batters before pinch-hitter Joey Bart doubled to right, scoring pinch-runner Alika Williams. It was an inning that ultimately sank the D-backs in a 6-5 extra-innings loss to the Pirates.

The pitch that Bart hit was on the outside corner of the plate, but Seward didn’t elevate it as much as he wanted. Lovullo, though, would’ve preferred they pitch Bart more carefully with Jared Triolo on-deck.

“I think if you slice it up in a perfect vacuum, you don't want to attack Bart,” Lovullo said. “You want to attack the guy on-deck. So maybe that’s something that we need to make a little bit more clear but he tried to attack him and it was the tying run that was on base and he didn’t want to put the go-ahead run on base. I respect that.”

It has been a rough month for Sewald, who after missing the first month-plus of the season returned to convert his first 11 save opportunities.

In July, though, he’s blown four saves and has a 9.31 ERA.

“Just been a fantastic July,” an obviously frustrated Sewald said. “Not my first blown save, not my first blown save in July, not my first bad month. We have a game tomorrow, so if they want me to pitch tomorrow, I will pitch tomorrow to the best of my abilities. That’s all that it comes down to.”

Lovullo said he was certainly planning on sticking with Sewald in the closer’s role.

Even after the Pirates tied the game, the D-backs were still in decent shape with Pittsburgh having used closer David Bednar and setup man Aroldis Chapman in the eighth and ninth innings.

Meanwhile, the D-backs had the hard-throwing Justin Martinez to pitch the 10th.

Things didn't go well for Martinez right from the start, though, as the first batter of the inning laid down a bunt to try to move the automatic runner from second to third. Martinez fielded the bunt and looked to third, but by the time he turned back to throw to first, there was no play.

That was the play that Lovullo, who is a stickler for fundamentals, was most upset about.

“You got to be very decisive,” Lovullo said. “There's no indecision. I think he just locked up and it cost us. You can't hesitate, right? That's what we talk about. We talk about playing fast and crisp and accurately. And when you blink, you get punched in the face, and we got punched in the face there and I don’t like it.”

Whether that play impacted Martinez going forward is hard to say, but he lost feel for the strike zone and wound up walking two (one intentional) and hitting a batter as the Pirates went on to score four runs to pull ahead, 6-2.

The D-backs made a game of it in the bottom of the 10th off Colin Holderman with Eugenio Suárez hitting a two-run homer to lead off the inning and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. following with a two-out homer to pull Arizona within a run.

Corbin Carroll then tripled before Geraldo Perdomo grounded out to end the game.

“They fought,” Lovullo said. “They fought really hard and they closed the gap up and we were one hit away from tying up the score. So there's some good things, but some of the things that didn't go well we've got to definitely target and improve upon."