Latest losing streak has the Miami Marlins ‘frustrated.’ Can they turn the page?

Pablo Lopez put it in simplest terms.

“It’s not fun,” the Miami Marlins starting pitcher said. “Losing’s not fun.”

This came minutes after the Marlins’ latest loss, an 11-3 defeat to the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. It was Miami’s most lopsided loss of the season, its 20th defeat overall through 35 games and its fourth loss in as many days.

They have slipped back toward the bottom of the National League East. At 15-20 entering Wednesday, the Marlins are in fourth in the five-team division, only ahead of the Washington Nationals (13-18) by virtue of win percentage.

“I think the guys are a little frustrated,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said.

The Marlins need to figure out a way to not let it linger. They started their last three-city road trip with back-to-back losses and went 3-7 overall on that trip through San Francisco, Milwaukee and Washington, D.C.

Miami faces the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies for three games apiece after it wraps up its series with the Diamondbacks on Thursday.

“This is a 162-game season,” said catcher Sandy Leon, a 10-year veteran. “Go back to the hotel and just relax. Think about it a little bit and come back with a different mind set and ready to play. If you’re thinking about yesterday or the game before, baseball’s gonna get you.”

Offensive woes

The struggles have primarily come on offense. Miami has scored just eight runs over the last four games. Seven of the eight runs have come in the sixth inning or later. The Marlins have not had a lead since the second inning of their 6-2 loss against the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday — a span of 35 innings.

They’re getting steady production from shortstop Miguel Rojas (team-high 23 runs scored), first baseman Jesus Aguilar (team leader with eight home runs and 29 RBI) and outfielder Corey Dickerson (team-best .316 average) at the top of the lineup, but their three primary middle-of-the-order bats have struggled to provide consistent production.

Garrett Cooper is hitting .194 with nearly twice as many strikeouts (36) as hits (20) through his first 112 plate appearances this season. He hasn’t driven in a run since April 30 and has just three RBI total since April 23, a stretch in which he started 15 of 17 games. Cooper also has just two home runs and is near the bottom of the team in most defensive metrics.

Adam Duvall, while ranking second on the team with six home runs and 21 RBI and playing sound defense in the outfield, is hitting .202 with nearly twice as many strikeouts (41) as hits (23) through his first 121 plate appearances.

And Brian Anderson, who missed a week and a half with a left oblique strain, is hitting .209 with 26 strikeouts in his first 92 plate appearances.

“We have a few guys who don’t feel like they’re swinging the bats good,” Mattingly said. “We’ve been pretty stagnant here with the bats other than a couple late flurries where we kind of creep back into games.”

And that undoes the work of their pitching, which for the most part has kept them in games.

While Tuesday was an anomaly on that front — Lopez tied a season high with six earned runs allowed and didn’t make it through five innings for just the second time in eight starts — the Marlins rank seventh in baseball with a 3.43 team ERA and 12th with a .227 batting average against.

“It’s not going to help us to feel sorry for ourselves,” Mattingly said. “We have to get the momentum turned.”

Key players close to returning

Reinforcements might be on the way, too.

Middle infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. and catcher Jorge Alfaro,both of whom have been sidelined by hamstring strains, began a rehab assignment Tuesday with the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, the Marlins’ Triple A affiliate.

Both played five innings for the Jumbo Shrimp. Chisholm went 1 for 3 at the plate, hitting a leadoff double off the wall in left-center field in which he slid into second. Alfaro went 0 for 3 but made solid contact in two of the three at-bats.

Mattingly on Tuesday didn’t put a timetable on when Chisholm or Alfaro will return to the active roster, although general manager Kim Ng mentioned Friday on a Bally Sports Florida broadcast that it could be as early as this weekend.

“They’ve really just got to show they’re healthy,” Mattingly said. “That’s the main thing. We know what they can do. We know they’re part of the club.”

To Mattingly, that means Alfaro showing he’s capable of catching back-to-back games and Chisholm showing he’s “gonna hold up after playing a couple days.”

“We really think those guys are really going to be ready about the same time,” Mattingly said. “Obviously Jazz hasn’t been on [the injured list] as long, but we still feel like the timeframe is going to be pretty close together as long as neither one of those guys has any kind of setback.”