SAN FRANCISCO -- Unable to unlock the power they’ve seen in flashes this season but not during this week’s three-game series in San Francisco, the Royals turned old school late in Wednesday afternoon’s game against the Giants.

Small ball led the way in the Royals’ 3-2 win at Oracle Park. Kansas City snapped a four-game losing streak and avoided a sweep by the Giants ahead of Thursday’s off-day in the Bay Area.

• Box score

Giving Andrew Benintendi the day off during a rough stretch and after he fouled another ball off his foot, manager Mike Matheny had “zero hesitation” when he turned to the left fielder in the eighth to pinch-hit. Benintendi responded by roping a leadoff double down the right-field line. He moved to third on Nicky Lopez’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Whit Merrifield’s sacrifice fly, and the one-run lead was all the Royals needed behind a dominant bullpen effort.

“That’s textbook baseball,” Matheny said. “It’s beautiful to watch.”

After Jonathan Heasley threw 92 pitches and allowed two runs in four innings, Matheny leaned on four relievers for five innings to keep the Giants at bay. A few nail-biting moments and nasty pitches later, and the Royals saw the lockdown bullpen they had hoped to build this year come through.

“Great effort by them,” Heasley said. “And good to sneak one away here at the end of the series.”

Lefty Amir Garrett worked around a hit-by-pitch and fielder’s choice for a scoreless fifth, and right-hander Taylor Clarke took over for the next 1 1/3 innings. This was the role the Royals envisioned for Clarke when they signed him to a one-year deal this offseason -- the middle-innings bridge before turning to setup man Josh Staumont and closer Scott Barlow.

Clarke fulfilled that role early, with a 0.75 ERA over his first 12 games through May 11. Then, Clarke allowed 16 runs (14 earned) in his next 11 outings. The Royals moved him out of a high-leverage role to get him back to being successful while not being the turning point in losses. His last two outings have looked much more like himself, getting swings and misses with his fastball/slider combination and utilizing his changeup against lefties.

“It has been just a couple tough ones in a row, and we tried to figure out how to get his confidence back up,” Matheny said. “It’s easy to talk about, getting your confidence back up, but you have to have some success out there. He’s got the repertoire to do it.”

Working with pitching coaches Cal Eldred and Larry Carter, Clarke found that his mechanics were out of whack, which led to his pitches flattening out as they crossed the strike zone. Hitters jumped at that.

“We found I was flying open a bit, so really, [I’m] just trying to stay on the target longer,” Clarke said. “Down the mound longer. My stuff has more carry. My changeup was flattening out rather than moving, my slider was doing the same thing. I think it was getting back to that better stuff. Not necessarily execution, more just honing in on mechanics and having a better thought process.

“I still try to treat everything like important ones, being able to get out there and have a good feel. But to help the team win with a couple guys down today, it felt good.”

After Clarke got Mike Yastrzemski to pop out in the seventh, Matheny turned to Jose Cuas with a man on second. The rookie right-hander has turned into the Royals’ new fireman after they optioned Collin Snider to Triple-A Omaha last week, and Cuas is living up to that expectation. He got the next three outs, earning his first Major League win when the Royals scored in the top of the eighth.

Cuas’ teammates made sure to celebrate accordingly.

“Oh yeah, they got me,” Cuas said. “They put me in a cart and got the best of me. Garrett told me they had a little surprise for me. I didn’t know that was the surprise. It was everything. Ketchup, powder, beer. Shaving cream. Bunch of stuff. But it was worth it.”

Staumont was unavailable Wednesday after throwing back-to-back games in this series, so Matheny turned to Barlow, the Royals’ ever-reliable closer, for a five-out save.

“There aren’t too many guys like that,” Heasley said. “Nobody else we would rather have out there in moments like that to shut it down.”

The Royals wanted to upgrade their bullpen this year to help finish games for their young starters, but those middle innings before turning to Staumont and Barlow have been up and down. Wednesday showed what’s possible when Kansas City can trust its bullpen.

“[Clarke’s] got what he needs, and we need him to step up as we’re trying to put together what that back end looks like before we get to Josh, Scott,” Matheny said. “Guys like Cuas, Taylor today, are proving they can be part of that conversation.”