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The Los Angeles Angels smiled, shook hands and exchanged high-fives on Saturday afternoon. It is what teams do these days after playing the Diamondbacks.

In falling, 8-7, to the Angels at Chase Field, the Diamondbacks extended a losing skid that has begun to defy explanation in its ability to maintain two seemingly contradictory characteristics: It is unfathomable in its duration, inexplicable given the personnel involved and confounding given the new knife-twists generated by each individual loss.

And, yet, despite all that, it is no longer surprising. Even as the skid reaches historic levels — as the team plumbs even deeper depths — it has lost its shock appeal.

Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo seemed to suggest as much late Saturday afternoon.

“(Opposing) teams can sense when you’re lacking a little bit of confidence and you’re hoping for things to come,” Lovullo said. ‘We need to eliminate that hope. That’s where we’re at right now. We’ve got to believe and get it done. So that’s my message to the guys.”

The loss was the Diamondbacks’ ninth in a row, their 23rd out of 25 and their 32nd out of 37. Their 5-32 mark matches the worst 37-game stretch in club history with the 2004 Diamondbacks, a team that lost a franchise-high 111 games.

The Diamondbacks, at 20-45, have the worst record in the majors. They are three games worse than the Baltimore Orioles, who at 22-41 own the second-worst mark. They are four games worse than the Pittsburgh Pirates and five games back of the Colorado Rockies. All of those clubs are widely regarded throughout baseball as having a worse major league core than the Diamondbacks.

“This is something else,” an evaluator with a National League club said. “They have a lot more talent than teams like the Pirates and Rockies. What a slide.”

The Diamondbacks showed some encouraging signs on Saturday, most notably in a five-run third inning, one of the few times in recent weeks the lineup has been able to string together hits, particularly with runners in scoring position.

They had a 5-0 lead after three innings. After the Angels chipped away at starter Caleb Smith, the Diamondbacks still entered the eighth with a 6-4 lead. The Angels scored a run in the eighth and, facing reliever Joakim Soria, three more in the ninth.

Josh Rojas connected for his second home run of the game with two out in the ninth, and the Diamondbacks fell to 2-14 in one-run games, another category in which they are last in the majors.

Lovullo described his club’s mentality as a sort of “lack of conviction,” something he thinks allows opponents to smell blood in the water.

“I think that’s kind of a little bit of the feeling that good teams have,” Lovullo said. “They sense that there’s some vulnerabilities. We’ve got to stop that feeling.”

Short hops

Right-hander Zac Gallen, who is making his way back from an elbow injury, threw 2 2/3 innings and 46 pitches in a simulated game on Saturday at Salt River Fields. He came away feeling good, manager Torey Lovullo said, describing it as another encouraging step in Gallen’s recovery. The club is hopeful Gallen can be back before the end of the month.

*Right-hander Matt Peacock, who left his last start after being struck on the right hand with a comebacker, will be able to make his next scheduled start. The club has not announced when that will be, but it could be as soon as Monday in San Francisco.