SAN FRANCISCO -- Since being inserted into the rotation, David Price has given the Dodgers a boost by tossing effective innings and giving the team some much-needed depth as it moved away from weekly bullpen games.

Price had some bad luck and struggled for the first time as a starter, allowing four runs (three earned) on four hits and three walks over 4 1/3 innings in the Dodgers’ 5-0 loss to the Giants on Thursday afternoon at Oracle Park.

With the loss, the Dodgers are three games behind the Giants in the National League West standings, after they squandered an opportunity to make up ground. The teams met seven times over the last 10 days, but the Dodgers won just two of those games.

“Seven games, we didn’t do enough things to win,” Price said. “They played really good baseball, got a lot of big hits, made the plays defensively, their starters and bullpen guys threw the ball really well. They played better baseball than we did.”

Price didn’t look nearly as sharp as he has in previous starts, especially with his command. The left-hander, who is known for pounding the strike zone, walked a season-high three batters in the first inning to load the bases. Brandon Crawford made Price pay for his lack of command, shooting a two-run double to give the Giants the early 2-0 lead.

“We just fell behind too many hitters,” said Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes. “In that first inning, he just fell behind a little bit too much. They had a good approach, and I thought he settled down pretty good and gave us a shot to win, we just couldn’t put any pressure on them. He’ll bounce back next time.”

Though Price’s command was what ultimately did him in, he also saw his velocity dip. Price averaged 91.2 mph on the 30 four-seam fastballs he threw against the Giants. That was down 2.2 mph from his 93.4 mph season average. The velocity was also down 2.5 mph on his cutter from his season average.

The lack of command early and the dip in velocity directly affected Price, who got just four swings and misses. Since joining the rotation on July 9, Price is 0-1 with a 3.71 ERA.

“This was the first time within about four or five outings that I've seen the velocity down,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “I’m not sure what it was, I’m not too concerned about it. … David has been fantastic for us. I look for him to rebound his next turn.”

While Price had his struggles on the mound, the Dodgers’ offense didn’t do much to help the veteran. After handling Anthony DeSclafani on Wednesday, Los Angeles struggled to get anything going against veteran right-hander Johnny Cueto.

Cueto held the Dodgers to just four hits over 5 2/3 scoreless innings, keeping L.A.'s offense completely off balance. The only scoring chance for the Dodgers against Cueto came with two outs in the sixth inning as they loaded the bases on Justin Turner’s 10-pitch walk.

But the Giants turned to left-hander Jarlin García to face Cody Bellinger. García struck out Bellinger on three pitches as the former NL MVP continued his nightmare season. With an 0-for-3 performance, Bellinger is now hitting .161 and has 17 multi-strikeout games this season.

“I could say that he made good pitches or I could say he had a pitch he should’ve moved forward,” Roberts said. “I don’t know, I haven’t seen [the video]. The bottom line is he got us out in that spot.”

It was another frustrating and inconsistent series for the Dodgers, who will go into the last two months of the season chasing San Francisco to try to win their ninth consecutive division title. Now, all the attention over the next 24 hours will be on what president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman does to improve the club before Friday’s 1 p.m. PT trade deadline.

The Dodgers already acquired left-hander Danny Duffy from the Royals on Thursday and the expectation is that they’ll make a few more moves.

“I think right now,” Roberts said with a grin, "we’re looking at about 21 hours, so we’ve got time. I know our guys [in the front office] are grinding.”