CINCINNATI -- For most of April and a good chunk of May -- especially at Great American Ball Park -- the Reds feasted on a smorgasbord of offense, using a variety of ways to punish pitchers. Need runners on base? No problem. Looking for a big hit? They notched them frequently. A home run? Lots of those to go around.

Through three games against the Giants this week, it's been homers or nothing. The Reds were limited to three hits in Wednesday's 4-0 loss and dropped their third consecutive game. Of the five runs they've scored in the series, four have come via solo home runs. The club leads the National League in home batting average and OPS, is second in the NL in overall batting, OPS and homers and sits first in slugging.

• Box score

But Cincinnati notched only one hit -- Tucker Barnhart's fifth-inning leadoff double -- on Wednesday against Giants starter Kevin Gausman over his six innings of work. What's going on?

"That's a good question, man. I don't have all the answers," right fielder Nick Castellanos said. "I do know that hitting is contagious. I do know that hitting is confidence, you know? It's something that feeds off of each other. Today, from an offensive standpoint, we did not get it done."

Gausman retired his first 10 batters in a row until a Castellanos walk in the fourth inning. The next inning, Barnhart doubled and Shogo Akiyama drew a one-out walk, but the inning ended when Jonathan India grounded to third base for a double play.

"I would have to say, as a collective group, we aren't doing too good of a job of getting the pitch that we want to hit. A lot of soft contact," Castellanos said. "Even when we're out in front of the count, [it's] still sometimes expanding and hitting a pitcher's pitch. But at the end of the day, they drive nice cars too, so show up and get 'em tomorrow."

On Thursday, the Reds will try to avoid a four-game sweep with their former ace, Johnny Cueto, pitching for San Francisco.

"Tonight, I think we have to start with talking about how Gausman pitched," Reds manager David Bell said. "He’s been outstanding all year. He was great tonight. The strike zone must have looked huge to our hitters, because he was making perfect pitches, apparently, that were just clipping the corners. Good fastball, good split, good slider.

"It’s no excuse, but it’s just the truth. We come back tomorrow, and kind of take what we’ve done most of the year into tomorrow, stay confident, and [we've] got another good challenge tomorrow. We just keep going."

Reds starting pitcher Wade Miley gave up one earned run and six hits over 4 2/3 innings, but that was enough to take a loss. Through the first four innings, Miley's only two hits allowed were soft-contact rollers, but trouble found him in the top of the fifth inning.

Mauricio Dubón led off the fifth with a double to left field and scored on Mike Tauchman's RBI single to left field. Tauchman was thrown out trying for second base. Gausman then notched his own single, and Miley was finished after Buster Posey's two-out single two batters later. Lucas Sims then struck out Darin Ruf to halt the rally.

It was revealed after the game that Miley hurt his left foot running out of the batter's box on his third-inning groundout to third base.

"Not really sure what happened," Miley said. "X-rays and MRI looks clean. It’s a little sore right now, I think this was more a little precaution."

The Reds’ bullpen tandem of Sims, Amir Garrett and Michael Feliz did a nice job of holding San Francisco from adding on until the ninth inning, when Carson Fulmer loaded the bases and gave up Posey's bases-clearing three-run double.

Against Giants reliever Tyler Rogers in the bottom of the ninth, Jesse Winker reached with a leadoff walk and was followed by a Castellanos single. The runners were on second and third base with one out when Tyler Stephenson was called out on strike three. Barnhart then grounded out to first base to end the rally and the game.

It was the sixth time in 41 games this season that the Reds were shut out. They were shut out seven times during last season's 60-game schedule. The offense finished 2020 last in the Majors with a .212 average, with 61.1 percent of their runs coming via the long ball -- an MLB record high.

"Just a few days ago, we were in Colorado talking about all the runs we were scoring, and comebacks," Bell said. "For the most part this year, that’s kind of what I’ve seen. But that’s the challenge. Yeah, you come back from Colorado, and we’re facing some pretty good pitching here. It can affect your confidence, but I think our key is to just keep working and keep it in perspective, too. Our hitters, these players have been doing that their whole career. That’s why they’re here."