Giants fall to Cubs 6-2

CHICAGO - Derek Holland crushes himself for allowing leadoff runners to reach base.

So after Holland cruised through his first six innings against the Chicago Cubs on Friday, the lefty looked back on the way he started the seventh with regret.

Three different Giants pitchers combined to allow four runs in a decisive bottom of the seventh inning of their 6-2 defeat, extending the team’s losing streak to three games.

“It just got away from us in the seventh,” manager Bruce Bochy said.

Through the first 51 contests of the season, the Giants have now endured five separate losing streaks of at least three games.

Holland allowed just one run in his first six innings of work, but opened the bottom of the seventh by hitting Javier Báez with a 2-2 sinker that trailed too far off the inside corner.

“I’m trying to keep us in the game and there’s no way I want to put the lead runner on,” Holland said. “The ball got away from me.”

After working ahead of Ian Happ 1-2, Holland tossed three balls in a row.

Bochy pulled his starter in favor of lefty Will Smith, but after a sacrifice bunt and a walk, Smith surrendered the go-ahead two-run double to Ben Zobrist.

The Cubs added two more runs after righty Cory Gearrin surrendered a single to Kris Bryant, but it was Holland’s breakdown at the beginning of the frame that sparked a Chicago rally and ruined the starter’s day.

With Madison Bumgarner and Johnny Cueto on the disabled list, Holland has emerged as the Giants’ most consistent starter. With six innings pitched and three runs allowed Friday, the 10th-year veteran recorded his second quality start of the month, which leads the Giants staff.

Heading into the seventh, Holland had recorded 10 consecutive outs, but with Báez at the plate, the left-hander’s ability to locate evaporated under the warm Chicago sun.

Holland, Smith and Gearrin combined to allow three walks and a hit by pitch in a miserable seventh inning, but the Giants’ offense didn’t provide much help Friday.

“The thing that’s hurt us are these walks,” Bochy said. “It came back to get us today. That’s an area we’ve got to get better at. Still, it would be nice to get some early runs for these guys.”

Outside of two hits by leadoff hitter Gorkys Hernandez, the Giants tallied only two more hits and only had five other players reach base.

No player in the Major Leagues accumulated more plate appearances without hitting a home run last season than Hernandez, but he has morphed into a reliable source of power at the top of the Giants order.

After Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks sat down the first nine hitters he faced, Hernandez crushed a solo shot into the left center field bleachers to lead off the fourth inning and tie the score 1-1. Hernandez’s fifth home run of the season gives the part-time outfielder as many homers as Andrew McCutchen and Buster Posey have combined for in the first ?51 games of the year.

“I don’t know where (the power) comes from, but I know I’m a power hitter sometimes,” Hernandez said.

Hendricks settled down after the home run, retiring the next eight hitters he faced before Hernandez stepped up and roped a groundball single through the middle of the infield with two outs in the sixth.

Hernandez was the only player producing against the Cubs right-hander, as a McCutchen walk preceded a Posey groundout to end the sixth inning.

The Giants did force Cubs manager Joe Maddon to make a pair of pitching changes in the ninth inning, but for much of the day, they were flummoxed by Hendricks’ fastball-changeup combination.

“He’s always tough,” shortstop Brandon Crawford said. “The changeup makes his fastball look a little bit harder and kind of sneaky and he was throwing strikes.”