LOS ANGELES — After leading the NL West for 153 days, the Diamondbacks ceded first place to Los Angeles on Saturday. They have 22 regular-season days to get it back. Manny Ramirez had five RBIs in the D-Backs’ 7-2 loss, which dropped them a half-game behind the Dodgers with the final game between the two today, one the D-Backs understand requires a quick counter after losing four in a row to them.

SLIDESHOW: D-Backs vs. Dodgers

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“We need to respond today,” manager Bob Melvin said.

“We got hammered two days in a row. We’ll see what we are made of. It’s not like the guys aren’t battling. Maybe they are putting too much pressure on themselves at times.

The loss was a microcosm of the futility they have felt while losing nine of their past 12 games, while the Dodgers have made up five games in the past eight days.  

• Brandon Webb continued to have difficulty finding consistent mechanics and gave up seven runs, although three scored after he left the game. He had a career-high six walks and hit a batter.

• Webb’s numbers were made worse when Justin Upton lost Ramirez’s bases-loaded fly ball in the sun with two outs in the sixth, enabling two of Webb’s inherited runners to score for the Dodgers’ final two runs.

• The D-Backs had only four singles in 6 1/3 innings off Chad Billingsley and did not score until Upton’s two-out, bases-loaded single in the ninth drove in two runs despite a lineup shake-up that put hot-hitting Stephen Drew third and moved Conor Jackson to fifth, with Mark Reynolds getting a day off while in a 7-for-42 skid.

The D-Backs have been outscored, 29-5, in their last four games against the Dodgers, two losses apiece by their 1-2 punch of Webb and Dan Haren.

“I wouldn’t call it demoralizing. Those guys have rough games like everybody else,” Upton said.

“We have to do our part and pick them up.”

The D-Backs will start Max Scherzer today in an attempt to regain the division lead they had held (or been tied for) every day since April 6.

Jackson is the only D-Back with a hit in each of the two games as the D-Backs have eight hits, all singles. The D-Backs have not led in any of the last four against the Dodgers.

“If we don’t hit, we don’t win. That’s the bottom line,” Jackson said. “We’re not going to sulk our heads. We’ve got 21 games left. We’re still in a good spot.”

The game was scoreless into the bottom of the fifth, with Webb striking out Ramirez — change-up, fastball, change-up — on three pitches with the bases loaded in the fifth, after  walking Andre Ethier, 9-for-18 against Webb in his career.

Pitching gingerly to Ethier again in the fifth, Webb walked him with two outs before Ramirez lined a fastball into the right-field stands for a 3-0 lead.  

“I threw a lot of pitches trying to be too fine,” said Webb, who has given up 19 earned runs in his last 13 2/3 innings to see his ERA jump to 3.41.

“I didn’t want to let one guy (Ethier) beat me. I nibbled. That’s not me. I wasn’t real aggressive. Both those guys (Ethier and Ramirez) are hot. You have to pick your poison.

“It’s tough when you go out and don’t have any runs. You have to be a little more fine. You don’t want to give up a big hit, because you know you are not going to get too many runs.”