The Arizona Diamondbacks arrived in Oakland on a six game win streak and left on a two-game losing streak following their mini-series against the A’s on Wednesday and Thursday.  The recently high octane D-backs offense seemed a little road weary after grinding out six wins against three different teams and dashing to the Coliseum without any breaks.

Merrill Kelly was trusted with the leather in game one of the series against the A’s.  The de facto, D-backs, ace had a decent, but not dominant, outing.  Kelly recorded seven strikeouts, but allowed four runs, half of them stemming from a two-run home run off the bat of Mark Canha in the bottom of the third.

Low offensive output kept the D-backs out of contention for most the game.  Both the A’s and the D-backs mustered up six hits in the contest, but Canha’s two-run homer and Robbie Grossman’s two-run double in the bottom of the first were all the A’s needed to snap the win streak that the D-backs road into Oakland on.

Kelly took responsibility, claiming he wasn’t quite on point during Wednesday’s game, as Steve Gilbert reported for DbacksPressbox.com.

“Just the overall feeling I had today I just wasn’t as sharp — mentally, physically — as I have been in the past,” Kelly said. “You know you’re just going to have those days throughout the season. You’re just not going to feel on point every single day. And that was just kind of one of those days today.”

On Thursday night, 2015, second-round draft pick Alex Young started on the mound for Arizona.  Just like the previous game, the D-backs sluggish offense held them back.  Their only run came from Eduardo Escobar’s solo home run in the top of the fifth inning.  Likewise, all of the A’s scoring came from home runs in the 5-1 Oakland win.

The A’s are one of the most dominant home teams in the Major Leagues, and the D-backs are not the only team to struggle in Oakland.

One positive takeaway from the current two-game slide for the D-backs, is the consistency of their fielding.  Just ten errors on the season makes them currently the fourth best fielding team in the league.  Behind only the A’s, Astros, and the Twin City Twins.

The D-backs continue their long stretch of games until Aug. 30.  They’ll face the San Francisco Giants on Friday, when Robbie Ray of the D-backs will start against Logan Webb in game one of a three-game series.