Nuri Sahin made no excuses after another dismal away performance saw Borussia Dortmund slip to a 3-1 loss at Mainz.

Dortmund saw Emre Can sent off as they fell to a fourth straight away defeat in the Bundesliga.

Saturday's loss leaves them in seventh place, 10 points behind leaders Bayern Munich.

"A difficult away game for us. Once we got that red card it got really hard," said Sahin, whose team have become the second Bundesliga side this century to have zero wins in their first five away games and five wins from their first five home games (after Borussia Monchengladbach in 2013-14).

"We have too few points on the road though I have to analyse today's defeat a bit differently than the other defeats because of the red card.

"With a few more points we would be somewhere else in the table. But for us we just are getting too few points."

Mainz picked up what was their first home win of the season in the Bundesliga, as they made their numerical advantage count following Emre Can's 27th-minute dismissal following a rash tackle. 

"Emre can't go into this challenge like that," Sahin said.

"He wins the first ball and then in the second effort he should stay up."