How does the Diamondbacks' offense compare to others after loss to Padres?

Early last week, the Diamondbacks hung 14 runs on the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium, hammering out 15 hits, seven of them for extra bases. They finally exceeded that run total on Friday night, only it took them a combined eight games to do so.

Their 7-1 loss to the San Diego Padres extended what largely has been a brutal stretch for the Diamondbacks and their struggling offense. They managed just three hits. They advanced only two runners into scoring position. They went down in order in seven of nine innings and went 0 for their final 14 to end the game.

It must be mentioned that the Diamondbacks were facing Padres right-hander Dylan Cease, possessor of high-velocity, high-spin fastball and a slider that is not too far removed from rating as baseball’s most dominant pitch. Cease worked 6 2/3 innings, walking none and striking out eight.

It should also be noted the Diamondbacks have faced other very good starting pitchers during this stretch, including Mariners right-handers George Kirby and Logan Webb and Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

But, at least in Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo’s mind, the quality of the opposition can only go so far.

Producing regardless of the opponent

“I can tip my hat to the opposition,” Lovullo said. “But I love our hitters, and I think so highly of them and I know they can go out and beat good pitching. To get to where we’ve got to go, we’ve got to find a way to beat good pitching. There’s good pitching all around this league.”

Since that night in St. Louis, the Diamondbacks rank last or next to last in the league in most major categories. They have hit .186/.264/.296 as a team since April 24 and their 15 runs scored are the fewest in baseball in that span, three fewer than the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Despite all that, the Diamondbacks still have one of the better offenses in baseball, at least by the numbers. Their 163 runs are the fourth-most in the majors, their on-base percentage seventh, their batting average ninth.

But this is a situation in which the numbers do not tell the whole story. The Diamondbacks’ offense has exploded in four games this year. In addition to that game against the Cardinals, there also were big nights against the Giants, Rockies and Cubs.

Inconsistency on offense

When those four games, in which they scored a whopping 59 runs, are removed from the ledger, the offense looks far more pedestrian. It has averaged just 3.59 runs in the team’s other 29 games.

“I think sometimes we come out hot and our offense is solid, rock solid, and their pitcher makes an adjustment to us and we might be a little late to the draw to make some adjustments,” Lovullo said. “I think when we’ve got our knee and our arms around their throats, we’ve got to really get after it.”

Right-hander Slade Cecconi gave up six runs in 4 1/3 innings, his first rough start after turning in a pair of impressive outings in place of the injured Merrill Kelly. Cecconi cruised through the first three innings, retiring each of the first nine batters, but immediately ran into trouble in the fourth.

The Padres opened the inning with a walk followed by back-to-back homers by Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jake Cronenworth, and they added another run later in the inning on a Jackson Merrill RBI double. It was a jarring turn of events considering Cecconi’s early dominance, and Lovullo drew a connection between those struggles and what happened the previous half-inning.

“We made two outs on two pitches in the bottom of the third inning,” Lovullo said. “I think the entire length of Slade’s rest, including the time in-between the inning, was probably about five minutes. Even though he was cruising, it was a quick, hurry-up offense to get back out there. Those are the little things that bother me and we’ve got to be better at it.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Diamondbacks' offense held in check again in loss to Padres