SAN FRANCISCO -- Regardless of the results, 2019 should be viewed as a triumph for Johnny Cueto, who returned to the Giants’ rotation earlier this month after completing an arduous 13-month rehab from Tommy John surgery.

Still, there’s no denying Cueto would have preferred to end his injury-shortened campaign on a better note. The 33-year-old veteran couldn’t hide his disappointment after delivering a clunker in his fourth and final start of the year, giving up five runs over two innings in the Giants’ 9-2 loss to the Dodgers on Friday night at Oracle Park.

“It’s a long process,” Cueto said in Spanish. “Coming back from Tommy John isn’t easy, but I’m going to keep working. God willing, next year will be better because I had two good starts and two bad starts.”

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After opening his outing with a 1-2-3 first inning, Cueto unraveled in the second, allowing the first four batters he faced to reach base. Cody Bellinger and Corey Seager led off the inning with back-to-back home runs, Will Smith walked and Gavin Lux tripled to stake the Dodgers a 3-0 lead.

Cueto came back to strike out Kiké Hernández and Walker Buehler before yielding a two-run shot to Joc Pederson that cleared the right-field wall and bounced into McCovey Cove. Max Muncy followed with a double, but Cueto induced a groundout from A.J. Pollock to finally end the 31-pitch inning.

“He was wild in the strike zone,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “A couple of those changeups came back and stayed in the nitro zone there for them.”

Cueto removed his cap and punched the air in frustration as he slowly made his way back to the Giants’ dugout. It marked only the second time in his 12-year career that he’s allowed three home runs in a single inning. The other occurred on May 16, 2008, in his ninth career start with the Reds.

The Giants had been expecting to limit Cueto to approximately 85 pitches on Friday, but he departed with his pitch count at 47 and was replaced by Wandy Peralta in the third. The two-inning start was his shortest since June 28, 2013, when he pitched one inning before exiting with an injury.

Cueto had been dealing with some soreness in his side in his last start against the Braves on Saturday, when he gave up four runs over four innings, but he said he felt fine on Friday. He finished the season with a 5.06 ERA after giving up nine runs over 16 innings, though he was heartened by the 10 scoreless innings he posted in his first two starts following the long layoff.

“I wanted to come back and pitch to see how I felt,” Cueto said. “I felt good. I’m happy because we’re going to keep working hard for next year.”