SAN FRANCISCO -- Three days ago, Giants manager Bruce Bochy admitted that he probably stuck with left-hander Derek Holland for too long, resulting in a grand slam that sealed Saturday’s loss to the Yankees.

He’s taken a markedly different approach with his rotation over the club’s first two games against the Dodgers, offering a glimpse at how the club is beginning to shift its pitching usage to minimize its starters’ exposure to the third-time-through-the-order penalty.

The new strategy was on display again in Tuesday night’s 10-3 loss at Oracle Park, which secured a 12-18 mark in April for the Giants. Left-hander Drew Pomeranz, who fired six shutout innings in his last start in Toronto, extended his scoreless streak with three clean innings against the Dodgers, but he ran into trouble in the fourth, spurring early action in the Giants’ bullpen.

After Justin Turner drew a leadoff walk and Cody Bellinger singled, Bochy called for right-hander Trevor Gott to begin getting loose. But Pomeranz couldn’t protect the Giants’ fragile one-run lead, as he surrendered a go-ahead, three-run home run to David Freese that clanged off the top of the right-field wall.

“We could hear it,” Bochy said. “It’s a dreaded sound when it‘s from the other side. We double-checked twice with our replay, and they said no question it was a home run.”

Pomeranz retired the next three batters he faced, but he did not return to the mound in the fifth and was instead replaced by Gott, who struck out two over a scoreless inning.

“I felt like I was throwing pretty good there,” said Pomeranz, who exited after throwing 77 pitches. “You make one bad pitch and it cost us three runs.”

Left-hander Ty Blach, who entered Tuesday with a 1.88 ERA in 12 career appearances against the Dodgers, came in to pitch the sixth, but he couldn’t keep the Giants within striking distance, yielding seven runs -- including homers to Enrique Hernandez and Turner -- over 3 1/3 innings in a rough 2019 debut to allow Los Angeles to surge to a 10-3 lead. Bochy chose to stick with Blach to avoid overworking the rest of the Giants’ relievers and keep them fresh for Wednesday’s rubber match.

“It didn’t work out with Ty’s hiccup, but he was the guy who was going to be our long guy and eat up some innings,” Bochy said. “That was kind of the plan.”

The Giants’ aggressive bullpen use didn’t yield the result they wanted on Tuesday, but it serves as an example of the club’s willingness to embrace a more analytically driven approach to the way it deploys its pitchers this season. While San Francisco’s pitchers have held opposing hitters to a .606 OPS the first time through the order and a .715 OPS the second time through, that mark spikes to a .968 OPS on the third look. The Giants have begun to adjust accordingly.

Right-hander Jeff Samardzija cruised through five shutout innings on Monday night before Bochy opted to pull him for a pinch-hitter and turn the game over to his bullpen in the sixth. Samardzija departed after throwing only 79 pitches and allowing only three baserunners, none of whom advanced into scoring position.

The 34-year-old veteran, who has logged five 200-inning campaigns in his career, admitted that he’s not used to being lifted earlier in games when he’s pitching well, but he understood the rationale behind the decision.

“Obviously, I pride myself on pitching a lot and taking care of the bullpen, but there’s different situations and different ways the chips fall in that situation,” Samardzija said following the Giants’ 3-2 win. “My spot was just due up and we needed a run. We won the game, and that’s the bottom line. Whatever it takes.”