ATLANTA -- The Giants were shut out for the sixth time this season, and the 9-0 loss to the Braves on Sunday afternoon at Truist Park brought an end to their streak of nine straight series wins.

Still, it marked the end of a rather successful 6-3 road trip -- including 4-2 on the East Coast after playing in Oakland -- before heading back west for one of the biggest homestands of the season against the National League Central-leading Brewers and rival Dodgers.

And while it can be hard to be excited coming off their biggest losing margin since May, the Giants appear to be headed in the right direction at a crucial time.

“You're always going to remember the last game of the trip; it's always going to kind of be the thing that you taste most,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said. “But I will say that overall, had you said, ‘Hey, would you sign up for a 4-2 trip here?’ I’d say I might. I have a lot of belief in this club, and every time we go out on the field, I think we are going to win that day's baseball game. Right now, I'm a little not pleased with the way we played this one.”

Starter Anthony DeSclafani wasn’t quite sharp in his return from the 10-day injured list (right ankle inflammation). After retiring the first nine batters, he couldn’t get out of the fourth inning and was lifted after giving up three runs and not recording an out. Part of that had to do with DeSclafani’s ankle bothering him as he had to cover first base, although he said he expects to make his next start.

Still, DeSclafani left the team in a winnable ballgame, as Giants starters have done throughout the road trip. San Francisco starters held a 2.35 ERA over nine games, and only one gave up more than three runs -- Kevin Gausman, who yielded five runs (two earned) on Aug. 21.

“I feel like we have a healthy starting rotation, and that's pretty important right now,” Kapler said. “I don't think there's many clubs that can say they have kind of a healthy five-man rotation, and we do. So that's a good thing. I believe in all of these guys every time they go out to toe the rubber.”

The Giants’ rotation is in an ideal position for the Milwaukee series, with Johnny Cueto, Alex Wood, Gausman and Logan Webb slated to pitch. They’ll have quite the challenge, though, as the Brewers gave Corbin Burnes an extra day of rest to make sure that he and fellow Cy Young candidate Brandon Woodruff could start the first two games of the series.

San Francisco has a five-game lead on the Brewers in the win column for the NL’s top seed, but the more pressing series is against the Dodgers, who have the second-best record in baseball and trail the Giants by 2 1/2 games in the NL West. And they’ll have to take on Los Angeles without their ace, Gausman, who wouldn’t line up for the series without going on short rest.

Key to taking those two series will be more offensive output, which could be aided by expanded September rosters and the impending returns of Kris Bryant and Evan Longoria. The Giants could not get anything going against five Braves pitchers on Sunday and have scored less than their season average (4.8 runs per game) lately. For the road trip, they averaged just 3.7 runs per game, and more will be needed against the Brewers and Dodgers, who rank fifth and first, respectively, in the NL in scoring.

“Obviously it's a stretch of baseball against some good teams, but we're just not really doing anything different. We're not going to look at our opponents differently, as we've done all year,” said outfielder Mike Yastrzemski. “We're just going to play our game and control what we can control and do our best and let the results happen for themselves.”