SAN FRANCISCO -- Tyler Beede accomplished a significant off-the-field goal this spring, completing his degree in organizational management five years after he was selected by the Giants in the first round of the 2014 Draft out of Vanderbilt.

Beede’s education in the Major Leagues remains ongoing, however. The 26-year-old right-hander has experienced highs and lows in his rookie season with the Giants, but he’s viewed every start as an opportunity to continue to learn and grow on the mound.

Five days ago at Chase Field, Beede struggled in his first career start against the D-backs, allowing four runs over four innings. He showed improvement in his second straight outing against Arizona, but he was still charged with the loss after the Giants fell, 5-1, in Thursday night’s series opener at Oracle Park.

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Beede surrendered two runs on four hits over 5 1/3 innings, but the Giants were flummoxed by left-hander Alex Young, who held them to one run on three hits in his Major League debut.

“This is part of his growth as a Major League pitcher,” manager Bruce Bochy said of Beede. “He bounced back and threw the ball well. You do get encouraged by the young players, how they’re playing and how he pitched tonight. You’d like to get him a win, that makes it even sweeter, but it’s going to be up to us to put some runs on the board.”

After throwing his last bullpen session, Beede said he was approached by members of the Giants’ analytics staff, who showed him a significant discrepancy in the effectiveness of his fastball up in the zone compared to down in the zone. Entering Thursday, opposing hitters were 4-for-26 (.154) versus his fastball in the upper-third of the zone, and 8-for-18 (.444) versus his fastball in the lower-third.

The numbers made sense to Beede, who said he’s better at inducing soft contact and missing bats when he’s up in the zone.

“It just gives me more conviction to know that I can ride the ball up in the zone,” Beede said. “I think in previous outings, I’ve been really focused on driving the ball down in the zone, and that just doesn’t play for me. It gets me into a situation where I start to pull balls off the plate. I think it’s just understanding what my strengths are. They are doing a good job of making me feel more convicted in that. Those guys brought that to my attention, and it was huge.”

Armed with that information, Beede came into Thursday’s start determined to improve his “attack percentage,” which he defined as getting ahead 0-1, 0-2 or 1-2. He opened his outing with three scoreless innings, allowing only two baserunners over that span.

Beede needed only 75 pitches to get through the first five innings and opened the sixth by coaxing a first-pitch flyout from Jarrod Dyson, but he then yielded a double to Ketel Marte, who was named the starting second baseman for the National League All-Star team before Thursday’s game.

With the Giants trailing, 2-1, Bochy sent Reyes Moronta to the bullpen to begin warming. After Beede walked the next batter, David Peralta, Bochy decided to pull him at 84 pitches and bring in Moronta, who struck out the next two batters to end the inning.

“I wanted to go deeper in the ballgame and preserve some of the bullpen, but obviously in that spot, we’re trying to limit damage,” Beede said.

Beede has battled command issues over his young big-league career and entered Thursday with a 15.6 percent walk rate, nearly double the MLB average of 8.7 percent. While the walk to Peralta didn’t come back to hurt him, an earlier free pass did.

In the fourth, Beede issued a one-out walk to Marte, who advanced to third on a double by Peralta and scored on a groundout by Christian Walker to give the D-backs a 1-0 lead. Arizona scored its second run of the night off Beede on Nick Ahmed’s leadoff home run in the fifth.

Still, Beede said he finished the night with his highest attack percentage of the year, an encouraging sign for his long-term development with the Giants.

“I think the more that I’m in pitcher-friendly counts, the better chance I’ll have at being successful,” Beede said. “At the same time, I’m not looking at results as much as everyone else. I want to win. I want to put up zeros. I want to have quality starts. When I go out there and control what I can control, attack guys and pound the zone, then I’ll be happy with that. I think the results will follow.”