SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants aren’t ready to pull the plug on Mac Williamson just yet.

One day after enduring the worst game of his career, Williamson was back in the Giants’ lineup as the starting left fielder in Friday night’s series opener against the D-backs. He went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in an 18-2 loss.

Manager Bruce Bochy said he felt it was important to stick with the slumping Williamson and give him an opportunity to begin to climb out of his rut, which was magnified even further after the 28-year-old slugger went 0-for-5 with five strikeouts in the Giants’ 5-4 loss to the Braves on Thursday.

“You’ve got to stay behind these guys and try to give them their best chance to succeed,” Bochy said. “Sometimes sitting a guy after a rough day like that, now you’re thinking about it more. Let’s get back right back on it, back in the saddle, so to speak. Let’s go. We’re big boys here. We’re going to have tough days, and we have to come out and show resilience and hopefully get it turned around. I’m giving him that chance.”

Williamson, who became only the fifth Giant to strike out five times in a game and the first since Brandon Belt in 2013, is mired in a 1-for-27 skid that has caused his batting average to drop to .118 over 51 at-bats this season.

Williamson admitted that his timing is off, as he’s finding himself caught in between pitches, meaning he’s late on the fastball and early on offspeed offerings. In recent days, he’s consulted Giants hitting coaches Alonzo Powell and Rick Schu, as well as his personal hitting guru, Doug Latta, in an effort to diagnose any potential flaws in his swing. He’s taken early work, pored over video and sought advice from teammates about the mental side of the game.

“That’s part of the frustrating part for me,” Williamson said. “I come in and I feel like I’m here every single day working hard. I’m not taking it for granted.”

Williamson recognizes that this is likely his last chance to stick with the Giants, who already designated him for assignment after he failed to crack their Opening Day roster. He cleared waivers, so they were able to assign him to Triple-A Sacramento. If they DFA him for a second time and he clears waivers, Williamson will have the opportunity to decline an outright assignment and become a free agent.

The Giants pledged to give Williamson an extended audition in left field after calling him up on May 7 in Colorado, but he hasn’t been able to replicate the results he showed at Sacramento, where he batted .378 with a 1.215 OPS and nine home runs in 23 games. Left field has been a black hole for the Giants all season, and Bochy acknowledged the team badly needs to boost its MLB-worst .437 OPS at the position.

"We've got to get some production from left field,” Bochy said. “There's no getting around that."

Forty-seven at-bats may not be a big enough sample for the Giants to render a final verdict on Williamson, but they do have a few other outfield options they could try. Tyler Austin, who started at first base on Friday, is batting .364 with a 1.159 OPS against left-handed pitchers this season, making him an ideal platoon partner for a left-handed-hitting outfielder. The Giants have two candidates at Sacramento: Mike Gerber and Mike Yastrzemski, the grandson of Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski.

Gerber, 26, is batting .328 with a .968 OPS in 36 games with Sacramento, though he went 1-for-15 over four games in his first stint with the Giants earlier this month. The 28-year-old Yastrzemski, who was acquired from the Orioles in March, has never played in the Majors and is hitting .326 with a 1.121 OPS and 12 home runs in 39 games.