CINCINNATI _ The Reds sent the "Dark Knight" to the mound.
Then Matt Harvey sent the Giants to the darkest night of their season.
The right-handed starter and former Mets phenom once billed as the "The Dark Knight of Gotham" had his career derailed by injuries, but it doesn't take a superhero to carve up the Giants these days.
Harvey opened the game with five no-hit innings and outdueled Madison Bumgarner in a 7-1 Giants loss.
With three consecutive losses, the Giants have fallen 7.5 games out of first place and could end the night a season-high 8.0 games back if the Arizona Diamondbacks defeat the San Diego Padres late Saturday. The Giants entered the All-Star break 4.0 games out in the National League West, but are now four games under .500 in the second half and steadily losing ground in a race where the checkered flag is creeping into sight.
After the Giants mustered just one run in a 2-1, 11-inning loss Friday, manager Bruce Bochy conducted a pregame meeting to instill a sense of urgency in a lineup that's lost its way over the last week. The manager's advice apparently did little to steer the club back on the right path.
The middle of the Giants' lineup has been the biggest source of frustration for the club, as the 3-4-5-6 slots in the order have combined to produce four hits in 52 at-bats during the three-game losing skid.
Harvey began the year in New York, but was dropped from the Mets rotation and then booted off the team altogether. The Giants were reportedly interested in acquiring Harvey from the Reds before the trade deadline to aide a playoff push, but Harvey stayed with the Reds and spent 6 1/3 shutout innings Saturday dragging San Francisco even further behind the pack.
Offense was hardly the only issue for the Giants on Saturday, as they dropped a series to the last-place Reds after Bumgarner allowed six runs in six innings. The Giants ace breezed through three innings of one-hit ball on 28 pitches but surrendered a leadoff homer to Jose Peraza in the top of the fourth.
Bumgarner had a chance to escape the inning with just a one-run deficit, but first baseman Brandon Dixon looped a broken-bat double into shallow right field to extend Cincinnati's lead to 3-0. Dixon entered the game hitting .174, but he did more damage than every member of the Giants' lineup with one swing of the bat.
Reds left fielder Dilson Herrera put the finishing touch on Bumgarner's night by smacking a towering solo home run to center field to lead off the sixth inning.
The Giants' inability to hit for average or power for such an extended period of time has created concern that will almost certainly linger into the offseason. The Giants have hit the fewest home runs in baseball in August and have posted the third-lowest team OPS and slugging percentage marks since the All-Star break.
Though the pitching staff has routinely kept the club in the mix in low-scoring, high-pressure games, San Francisco has failed to achieve any sort of balance at the plate. Saturday was another example of what happens when everything goes awry for the Giants, and it couldn't have come at a worse juncture in the season.
