PHOENIX -- This was a game -- and a series, for that matter -- that the D-backs felt like they should have won. Instead, they were left trying to explain a second straight loss to the Marlins, this one by a 5-4 margin on Wednesday afternoon at Chase Field.

The D-backs won the opener of the series behind ace Zac Gallen on Monday night, and after losing Tuesday night, they felt confident heading into the series finale with co-ace Merrill Kelly on the mound.

“I think there's some frustration in there,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said referring to the clubhouse. “I don't think we expected to lose today's game. I think we walked into the dugout today and -- even through the course of it all the way through the final out of the game -- I thought we were going to win the game. I think everyone in that dugout did too. So I think we're a little frustrated.”

Kelly’s frustration came from a three-batter stretch in the fourth that would prove to be crucial.

After retiring the first 10 batters he faced, Kelly allowed a single to Jorge Soler and walked Luis Arraez before yielding a three-run homer to Jesús Sánchez to straightaway center.

“Just missed with that one pitch to Sánchez,” Kelly said. “I was trying to go fastball up and away, and obviously just yanked it down to the heart of the zone. I know it was down, but he had just seen I think at least two changeups down in that area, so his eyes were already kind of there and I just grooved a fastball. I got to hand it to him, he put a really good swing on it. It’s hard to get a ball out to center like that.”

Still, the D-backs did manage to tie up the game thanks to Edward Cabrera’s struggles throwing strikes in the bottom of the fourth. The Marlins right-hander walked four in the inning and also committed a balk as Arizona scored four times on only one hit.

But that was all they could muster offensively as the Marlins' bullpen came in and shut them down the rest of the way.

“Their bullpen comes in very aggressive. They establish their fastball and then work off of that,” Lovullo said. “[We were] probably trying to do too much, getting too big instead of just being a good hitter. I think as you're growing up as a young team, as soon as you figured that out -- how to be dynamic and not always trying to deliver the power punch.

"I think you become an unpredictable team, an unpredictable offense. And I think we got predictable at times and we were a little too big.”

Josh Rojas, who has been slumping at the plate of late, was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts on the day. He definitely felt the frustration.

“We lost to a team that we felt like we should beat,” Rojas said. “[Edward Cabrera] was throwing some good pitches, but [he's] not a guy that I thought [would] be the person that should have dominated me like he did.”

The D-backs will have to shake off their frustration quickly because the division-rival Giants will roll into Chase Field on Thursday to start a four-game series.