WASHINGTON -- Nationals manager Dave Martinez is pulling out all the stops to try to halt his club’s swoon in June.

Martinez was ejected from Thursday’s 5-3 loss to the D-backs arguing questionable low strike calls by home-plate umpire Doug Eddings, the Nationals' 14th loss in their last 17 games.

With one out, Arizona’s Carson Kelly took a first-pitch ball from Nats righty Jake Irvin. After some chatter from the dugout, Martinez came out to argue with Eddings.

The skipper was heated as he came out to argue with Eddings. After a short argument, Martinez left to head back to the dugout, but kept jawing at Eddings, who promptly ejected Martinez.

This further incensed Martinez, who swept home plate with his lineup card, then got down on the ground and appeared to demonstrate where the inside pitches were landing on the left side of the plate. The chalk was completely wiped away by Martinez.

Irvin appreciated his skipper backing the team up.

"Heck yeah. That's Davey standing up for guys that have been working really, really hard to right this ship,” Irvin said. “Here's our leader, man. When a guy comes out and battles for us like that, it's motivational. We see it, see how much he cares, and we are going to keep working hard, that's for sure."

Martinez said chirping from his dugout was a reaction to the strike three call from Eddings on a pitch that looked low to Nationals shortstop CJ Abrams, ending a two-on, two-out threat in the bottom of the fourth.

"I wasn't the one screaming in the dugout,” Martinez said. “It was loud. You could hear everything. We are in a crucial situation right then. The call was bad. Nothing against the umpires, but I am going to protect my players, and that's all there is to it. He takes a pitch. He does a good job. Maybe he gets to the next pitch, who knows. Maybe he gets a base hit and we are back in the ball game. It's just a tough situation."

Even with those questionable calls, the Nationals' defense did not make it easy on Irvin, committing two errors and missing another potential out:

• In the first inning, following a single by Christian Walker, Corbin Carroll took two bases and scored on a fielding error by center fielder Derek Hill.
• In the fourth, the D-backs scored when Carroll again took extra bases on an infield single by Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. Second baseman Luis García appeared to have a chance at making the catch.
• García’s error in the seventh opened the door to three unearned runs for the D-backs. Four batters later, Ketel Marte’s three-run homer proved to be the game-winner.

"We talked about it earlier,” Martinez said. “You can't give good teams 28, 29 outs. You can't. I think we had four unearned runs today. Take those away and we are right in the ballgame. We got to get better at that. We really do. And if we do that, we are going to be able to compete."

García admitted he made a mistake on the fourth-inning popup by Gurriel that dropped in for hit.

"To be honest, I could have played it a lot better,” García said through interpreter Octavio Martinez. “I saw the swing go up with the ball, and I felt it was farther behind me, but I didn't take into account the wind. I looked up and I saw [the ball] behind me the second time. And when I looked up again, I saw it had changed direction a little bit. I tried to make an attempt to make a play on it, but it was too late."

Martinez said he is starting to not only lose his patience with the umpires, but with his team’s defense. The club has now lost 14 of 18 games this month.

"The line has been crossed. It really has,” he said. “I had my conversations. And I will have a conversation tomorrow as well. In order for us to get better and to compete with really good teams, we got to clean it up. We really do. 

“There’re times when we play really good. There’re times when we play good teams really, really well. If we happened to get beat, we get beat. That's part of it, but to beat ourselves, that's not who we are. I won't allow that. That's not acceptable. So, there will definitely be conversations tomorrow about it. But we will definitely keep it up and we will stay on these guys to get better at it."