The defending World Series champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers, dropped their seventh game in a row to start the weekend. The rare slump has cost the Dodgers their top wild-card spot in the National League. They are now behind the Milwaukee Brewers and the Atlanta Braves. On Friday, the Dodgers had a chance to snap their losing streak, but the Arizona Diamondbacks dashed those hopes with a ninth-inning walk-off victory. After the 4-3 loss, the Dodgers manager did not mince words while expressing his disappointment.

“A loss is a loss, but to get walked off never feels good,” Dave Roberts told the reporters, per SportsNet LA on X. “We didn’t play a clean game, a great game on either side of the baseball. But we did enough to put ourselves in a position to win a game, and unfortunately we couldn’t finish it.”

Painful as it might be for Roberts to admit, the Dodgers have struggled with hitting and pitching lately. The game against their division rivals delivered a reality check about where the team is falling short.

On Friday, taking the mound for the D’backs, Merrill Kelly shut down a lineup with Shohei Ohtani, Tommy Edman, and Freddie Freeman for five innings. The only run he gave up was on a fielder’s choice grounder to Freeman before he was pulled for Morillo. As a team, the Dodgers recorded 3 runs on seven hits against the D’backs and left five runners on base.

With Roki Sasaki holding off the D’backs to two runs, the game was not lost for the Dodgers. Despite their initial struggles, Andy Pages gave the Dodgers a 3-2 lead with his solo shot. But Edwin Diaz failed to deliver when tasked with closing out the game.

On Friday, Diaz’s trusted slider failed him as he hung one over the plate to rookie Ryan Waldschmidt. In the bottom of the ninth, Waldschmidt launched it to left-center field to score the game-winning run.

“I’ve got to find it [slider] tonight, tomorrow when I come to the field,” Diaz told the LA Times. “Because that’s my pitch. I got a good fastball, but my slider is the strikeout pitch. And today, I missed with two strikes. … I’m still positive. I’m always positive. Just got to do my job better and help the team to win.”

The Dodgers signed him to a three-year, $69 million contract this year. But Diaz is navigating a rough patch and has not always been able to meet expectations. Across 9 innings, he holds an inflated ERA of 11.00 in 11 outings.

The Dodgers manager has also acknowledged Diaz’s struggles after the loss. Roberts linked it to Diaz’s return from elbow surgery. The Dodgers activated Diaz on July 29 after missing three months recovering.

“I thought the fastball was good. I thought the fastball life was good. But the slider just isn’t having much effect. And he left one close to Walsh-Schmidt, and he hit a homer. And I think that he just hasn’t had the feel for that pitch since he’s got back.

The Dodgers are just 7.5 games above the second-place D’backs in the NL West after Friday’s loss. They will aim to snap their season-high losing streak on Saturday and level the series.