OAKLAND -- For the first time in nearly a month, the Giants are in the midst of a losing streak -- one that even left-hander Alex Wood couldn’t halt.

The Giants entered Friday 11-0 when Wood took the mound following a loss this year, but that unbeaten streak came to an end after they were defeated, 4-1, by the A’s in their Bay Bridge Series opener at the Coliseum.

San Francisco has now lost back-to-back games for the first time since dropping two straight to the Pirates on July 23-24. The skid is poorly timed for the Giants, who are now only 1 1/2 games ahead of the surging Dodgers (who've won eight straight and 12 of their past 13) for first place in the National League West -- their slimmest division lead since July 20.

The Giants aren’t panicking -- they’ve held the best outright record in the National League for 97 consecutive days -- but their recent stumbles served as a reminder of their razor-thin margin for error as they attempt to dethrone the reigning World Series champions in the competitive NL West. 

“I think it’s important to set out to win every night,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “I also think it’s important to keep things in perspective. In this particular case, we haven’t taken our foot off the gas. We haven’t won the last two baseball games, but that’s really not indicative of how we’ve approached these baseball games.”

Wood did his part to keep the Giants in the game, striking out nine while giving up two runs over five innings, but he received little run support, indicative of a recent trend that has seen San Francisco score three runs over its last two games. Mike Yastrzemski, who batted ninth, accounted for the Giants’ lone run with his 19th homer of the year, a solo shot to right field against A’s right-hander James Kaprielian in the fifth inning.

“Mike’s a pretty good player,” Wood said. “I’ll take him in my lineup any day of the week.”

The Giants forced Kaprielian to throw 92 pitches over five innings, but they finished the night with only five hits and left seven men on base. Tommy La Stella, Buster Posey and Brandon Belt drew consecutive walks off Kaprielian to load the bases with two outs in the third, but Kris Bryant flied out to center field to end the threat.

“I thought that was a productive, quality inning and an example of what we can be and what we are often,” Kapler said. “At the same time, we didn’t get it done, and that’s all that matters. But I did think the quality of the at-bats [were better]. We were driving the ball in the air, but it wasn’t enough.”

Yastrzemski stood out as one of the lone bright spots, particularly following his struggles to recapture the form he showed over the previous two seasons, when he blossomed into the Giants’ most valuable player. The late-blooming Yastrzemski batted .272 with an .852 OPS and 21 home runs during his rookie season in 2019 and followed that up with an even better campaign in 2020, hitting .297 with a .968 OPS and 10 home runs en route to placing eighth in NL MVP voting.

Yastrzemski hasn’t looked quite as locked in at the plate this year, hitting .219 with a .761 OPS over 103 games through Friday, though his season has been disrupted by injuries, including a left oblique strain and a right thumb sprain. Before the game, Kapler said he understood why it would be a bit “jarring” to see a hitter of Yastrzemski’s caliber hitting ninth, though he chose to view the lineup order as more of a reflection of the Giants’ depth and less about Yastrzemski’s rough patch.

“We have a tendency to compare Yaz to what essentially is a superstar performance, and that’s a really, really high bar,” Kapler said. “I get it. I mean, that’s who he was for a calendar year, one of the best hitters in all of baseball. But I think it makes sense to recognize he’s had periods of good performances this year.”

Yastrzemski entered Friday hitting just .160 over 16 games this month and extended his hitless streak to 12 consecutive at-bats after striking out against Kaprelian in his first plate appearance in the third. But he snapped out of the funk by driving a center-cut fastball 401 feet into the right-field bleachers to put the Giants on the board in the fifth. It might get lost in the shuffle, but Yastrzemski’s 19 homers are tied with Brandon Crawford for second on the team, behind only Bryant's 21.

“I’ve been making a few moves before my swing that have kind of given me a little trouble seeing the ball,” Yastrzemski said. “We’re just trying to simplify that and making sure that we prioritize seeing the ball and swinging at good pitches first. I think that’s been helping a lot. My swings have felt a lot better lately, and I hope we’re moving in the right direction.”