CINCINNATI -- It’s been a long week for the Giants’ pitching staff. Monday’s game was suspended due to weather after Logan Webb delivered seven strong innings. On Tuesday, nine different pitchers took the mound for San Francisco -- including Camilo Doval twice -- in the eighth, ninth and 10th innings of the continuation and nine innings of the regularly scheduled game. Ross Stripling’s quality start and Ryan Walker’s two innings in relief gave a breather on Wednesday, but then came Thursday’s 12:35 p.m. ET affair.

Alex Cobb labored through 4 1/3 innings against the Reds, allowing five runs on nine hits in a 5-1 loss at Great American Ball Park. It was his shortest start since June 13, the nine hits were a season high and the five runs were the second-most he’s given up this season. It was the first time since 2018 he pitched at least one inning and didn’t record a strikeout.

“Clunker. Just a bad day. It happened,” Cobb said. “You know when you're going that you don't have your best stuff or that you're battling, and you try to limit as much as you can. And I tried, just didn't. I don't think I've had a game where I had four walks, no strikeouts, but obviously just couldn't control the baseball very well.”

Cobb opened his day by allowing a pair of walks in a scoreless first inning followed by a perfect second. But there were signs early that his pitches weren’t doing what they were supposed to. Of the five balls the Reds hit into play in the first two frames, four were hard hit (exit velocity over 95 mph), though they were all outs.

In the third, after a walk, Luke Maile barreled a ball a Statcast-projected 423 feet to center field. It was the second-longest home run hit off Cobb this year after a 440-foot blast by Austin Nola in April.

“Alex was probably missing with location a little bit,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “When he's at his best, his command is strong. I don't think his command was where he wanted it to be. I don't think he had great feel for the baseball today. Still able to grind it out for us, and respect and appreciate his process, just didn't work out for him and us today.”

Though all the damage was done in the latter half of Cobb’s outing, he said he felt better as the day went on, pointing to a grinding first inning.

Cobb threw a first-pitch called strike to Elly De La Cruz, then he missed the zone on his next four pitches to walk the leadoff man. After two more balls to TJ Friedl, De La Cruz attempted to steal second. But a perfectly placed throw from Patrick Bailey to shortstop Casey Schmitt gave Cobb his first out of the afternoon and kept one of the fastest runners in the game out of scoring position. Wilmer Flores’ diving stop on Friedl’s 103.7 mph groundout eliminated another quick runner.

“First inning could've really gotten out of hand if Patty doesn't throw him out at second, and then Flo made a really nice play at first,” Cobb said. “So really feel like I got lucky in the first that there wasn't any damage. And then as I started to feel like I made an adjustment a little bit, they were just hitting the ball.”

Cobb’s splitter is his most valuable pitch and one that generates a high number of whiffs and outs. But on Thursday, the splitter wasn’t working how it usually does for him. Its average velocity was down 0.6 mph from his season average, and it was breaking less than it usually does, meaning it hung out over the plate for batters to feast on.

Of the 29 splitters Cobb threw, 15 of them were swung on, and only two missed. Four of the Reds’ nine hits (44 percent) came on the splitter, including two doubles, even though Cobb only threw the pitch 34 percent of the time.

“Just couldn't really get a grip on it too well, and it would squirt out of my hand and miss arm side,” Cobb said of the splitter. “And then when I tried to overcorrect, I'd kind of either spike it or leave it over the middle of the plate a little bit. [You] try to make the adjustments in the game, but feel like when you do, then they get a runner on and they're super aggressive, so you try to make too fine of a pitch, and before you know it, they're circling.”