One day after snapping an eight-game losing streak, old issues cropped up for the D-backs.

Luke Weaver had some early struggles, and coming off a big game, the D-backs’ offense went quiet again as the Giants prevailed, 5-2, on Saturday night at Chase Field. It was Arizona’s ninth loss in the past 10 games.

• Box score

The D-backs had reason for optimism coming into the game. Weaver had pitched better in his previous two starts, the last of which was also against San Francisco, and the offense seemingly found its footing with a seven-run outburst in the first game of this series.

However, the Giants jumped on Weaver early, scoring two runs in the first inning, one in the second and one in the third before the right-hander was removed from the game to open the fourth.

The problem wasn’t with Weaver’s stuff, which seemed sharp. And it wasn’t a control issue, as he threw 51 of his 70 pitches for strikes. But there is a difference in baseball between control and command. Control is throwing strikes. Command is throwing those strikes in the right part of the zone as opposed to down the middle.

“Although he had good stuff, I think there were just too many middle-middle mistakes,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. “And when you make middle mistakes at this level, you're going to pay for them.”

In the first, Weaver got ahead of Alex Dickerson, 0-2, before giving up a one-out single on a 1-2 pitch. Later in the inning, Brandon Belt drove in a run with a double after Weaver was up, 0-2.

The lone Giants run in the second came on a double by Mike Yastrzemski after he fell behind, 0-2, and worked the count back to 2-2.

Weaver wanted to look at more video before rendering a final assessment, but he said the two-strike pitches he made simply weren’t good enough.

“I felt I got ahead like crazy, was 0-2, 1-2, to almost everybody, and that's the hard part,” Weaver said. “You know the easier part should just be to throw a good quality pitch, but that gets tough sometimes. Guys get in protective mode, and it's hard to throw a good pitch there. Ultimately, it's just not good enough. When you're in attack mode like that, you can't you can't let off the gas.”

Weaver had a rough beginning to the season, but he had seemed to turn the corner on his fortunes heading into this start.

“Obviously, he was getting ahead, he was doing a great job getting ahead, and it just seemed like we couldn’t put them away,” catcher Stephen Vogt said. “You know, we get to two strikes and weren't able to really bury the pitches in with two strikes, and they were able to get some pitches to hit that normally he's able to put away.”

Offensively, Arizona struggled against San Francisco right-hander Trevor Cahill, who held it hitless until Starling Marte’s leadoff single in the fourth. Two batters later, Christian Walker hit a two-run homer. Shortly after that, Cahill departed with left hip discomfort.

The D-backs fared no better against five San Francisco relievers, managing only one hit and a walk over the final 5 2/3 innings. Lovullo lamented the lack of adjustments made by Arizona's hitters, who he said are getting “game-planned” well by opposing pitchers.

Meanwhile, Vogt is at a loss to explain why the D-backs' offense is having such a collectively tough season.

“I mean, we're frustrated, obviously,” Vogt said. “We're underperforming, we're not playing to our capabilities. I feel like we are pressing. We are trying to do too much. We are trying to make up for lost time, and right now, we need to snap out of it and get back to just doing our thing and believing how good we are, because we are. I think, truly, we are one of the best offenses in baseball, just we're not playing like it right now.”