SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants have been trying to piece it together since a COVID-19 outbreak and mounting injuries eroded their prized depth. Reinforcements have finally begun to trickle in, but it hasn’t been enough to right the ship thus far.

After a lopsided 7-1 loss to the Cardinals in Thursday night’s series opener at Oracle Park, the Giants have dropped six out of their last seven games and four in a row, matching their longest losing streak from last year.

• Box score

Not much seems to be going right for the Giants, but here’s a closer look at the two areas that have been experiencing the most glaring issues during their funk:

1. The offense

Timely hits once again proved elusive for the slumping Giants, who were held to one run for the third consecutive game. They have now been outscored by a 48-21 margin over their last seven games, batting only 9-for-50 (.180) with runners in scoring position over that span.

“I think we’re having difficulty getting the big hit,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “We have to hang in there through a rough stretch of some bad luck -- but also not our best baseball -- and trust that over the course of a long season, our true talent will emerge and our grit and tenacity will come out.”

Cardinals right-hander Miles Mikolas opened his outing with four scoreless innings before Mike Yastrzemski cut the deficit to 3-1 with an RBI single to right field. The next batter, Joc Pederson, sent a deep drive to center field with two runners on and two outs, but Harrison Bader caught the ball at the base of the wall to end the inning.

“We’re definitely seeing some balls hit hard that seemed like they would usually be homers, and they aren’t getting out,” shortstop Brandon Crawford said. “I think the toughest part is that they’re just not homers, they’re also outs a lot of the time. They’re not getting off the wall or in the gap or anything.”

The Giants chased Mikolas from the game by loading the bases with two outs the following inning, but reliever Andre Pallante coaxed a groundout from Jason Vosler to escape the jam.

Yastrzemski finished 2-for-4 with a walk in his second game since returning from his bout of coronavirus, but the Giants are still waiting to get LaMonte Wade Jr. (left knee injury) and Brandon Belt (COVID-19) back in their lineup in the coming days.

“I think last year we had stretches where we were missing guys in our lineup, but we would kind of ride it out and find ways to win and put up runs,” Crawford said. “We’re just not doing that right now.”

2. The bullpen

Logan Webb was lined up to pitch Thursday, but the Giants decided to push his outing to Saturday to give him more time to recover in between starts.

To fill the void in their rotation, the Giants tapped reliever Mauricio Llovera to start a bullpen game. Llovera worked a 1-2-3 first inning in his fourth appearance of the year before passing the baton to Zack Littell, who missed seven games before being reinstated from the COVID-19 IL on Thursday.

Littell struck out two over a scoreless second, but he surrendered a solo shot to Yadier Molina to start the third, putting the Giants in a 1-0 hole. It was the first run allowed by Littell in eight innings this year.

The Cardinals extended their lead to 3-0 behind Tommy Edman’s two-run single off lefty José Álvarez in the fifth before breaking the game open with a four-run seventh against Jake McGee and Tyler Rogers, two of the Giants’ top high-leverage arms.

San Francisco’s bullpen, which ranked second in the Majors with a 3.25 ERA last year, has now allowed 29 runs over the past six games.

“I think it’s just a tough stretch,” Littell said. “Teams are going to go through this. Especially if you look back at last year and say, ‘Well, we didn’t have a stretch like this last year.’ Not many teams have stretches like we did last year. And it’s May. Ideally, you don’t go through this at all, but it’s a lot better than going through something like this in August or September. This team is built with plenty of depth to deal with stuff like this.”

Littell’s return was a good first step, but the Giants are hoping to get another boost once Dominic Leone returns from his own stint on the COVID-19 IL. Leone is eligible to be activated Monday, though he can break his quarantine period early with two negative PCR tests.