PHOENIX -- There’s a different feel around the D-backs this season.

Even on nights they lose, like Saturday night, which brought a 5-3 loss to the Padres at Chase Field, it feels like at any moment the D-backs are going to find a way to pull the game out. That’s not something you could say about the 110-loss squad of 2021 or even the 74-88 version of a year ago.

• Game Story: Walker drives in all three runs for D-backs ▶️

“I think the guys that we have are just settling into more of a role,” first baseman Christian Walker said. “It's comfortable knowing what your role is and what you're expected to bring to the table every day. So I think that's a part of it.

“I think overall we have more weapons, we have more options. That's also a part of it. And I think it's just a lot of fun. We can feel the competitiveness. Even down two, three, four runs, we know we'll get them back eventually. It's just a matter of playing our role, getting it to the next guy.”

The D-backs have faced a rugged schedule in the early going. Their first 10 games were against the Dodgers and Padres. They’ve played the Cardinals and Brewers three times each and now they’re three games into a four-game series with the Padres.

D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said some of his friends and family expressed concerns to him before the start of the season about the tough early road, but Lovullo told them they were looking at it the wrong way.

“I said it'll be a great test for us,” Lovullo said. “And no matter how we come out of that, record-wise, we're going to be better off for the fact that we've come out a little bit ahead. I'm excited about it but we do have a long way to go. This is a long journey.”

Well, 22 games into the journey, with a bit of a lighter schedule ahead, the D-backs sit in first place in the National League West.

There’s a belief in the D-backs’ dugout and clubhouse that they’re going to find a way to win a game. And when they do wind up losing, like Saturday, that belief allows them to move toward the series finale Sunday with no loss of confidence.

“That's kind of what you hold on to -- it was right there,” Walker said of the narrow loss. “It’s nobody's fault, but there was an opportunity to win a baseball game, whether it was that we scored an extra run there or whatever.

“You can't take any credit away from them as far as [getting] a timely hit here and there and making the runs count. But overall, it's something to hold on to for sure -- just being in every game.”

For the D-backs to not just be in a game like Saturday’s but win it, they will need to rectify their walks situation – both on the mound and in the batter’s box.

The D-backs lead the National League in walks issued and rank last in walks drawn. Saturday’s starter, Merrill Kelly, walked five -- and two came around to score.

The free pass has been a frustrating and uncharacteristic issue for Kelly this year. He walked 12 in his first three starts before not allowing a free pass last time out against the Cardinals. This time, though, it again was a problem.

“When I'm in the zone, around the zone, I'm getting people out,” Kelly said. “It's just when I'm obviously not around the zone that things have come back to kind of bite me in the [butt] lately. I think that's probably been the most frustrating part of the whole season.”

The season, though, is young, and so are the D-backs. There will be a learning curve and growing pains, but there will also be an optimism that hasn’t been felt in these parts for a while now.