SAN FRANCISCO – The San Francisco Giants’ deficit against the New York Mets grew from one run to four runs in a span of about a minute Friday night – and not without an inquiry from manager Gabe Kapler.

Catcher Joey Bart fielded a check swing from Jeff McNeil in the fifth inning right in front of home plate, but his throw to first base went off McNeil’s back and into right field, allowing Luis Guillorme to score from second base.

Kapler came out of the dugout to talk to home plate umpire Bill Miller about McNeil potentially being inside the line on his way to first base, but the discussion was brief.

The next batter, Pete Alonso, took the first pitch he saw from Anthony DeSclafani over the center field wall, giving the Mets more than enough offense in what became a 7-0 win over the Giants before an announced crowd of 27,551 at Oracle Park.

“I did go out there to ensure that the play was not reviewable, and then asked (Miller) if he would be willing to check with the other umpires,” Kapler said. “He said that it was his call. He had a pretty clear view of it. We’ve reviewed it and it looks like it’s probably a fine call.”

DeSclafani’s next pitch was a slider that wound up 415 feet away from home plate, as Alonso hit his Major League-leading 10th home of the season.

DeSclafani allowed seven hits and four earned runs in five innings, his shortest outing of the season as his record fell to 1-1.

“It was a really weird play,” DeSclafani said. “Obviously, I wish we got that out there, but we didn’t and then I just didn’t do a good job of walking back in and having some damage control. A hanging slider to Pete and it just kind of got us out of the game.”

Mets left-handed starter and Newark native Joey Lucchesi, in his first big league game since June 2021, struck out eight in seven innings as he helped hand the Giants their seventh loss in eight games.

Lucchesi allowed just four hits and induced three ground ball double plays as the Giants were shut out for the third time in 19 games this season.

Prior to Friday, the Giants had hit just .211, with a .593 OPS in 229 plate appearances against left-handed pitchers. By contrast, the Giants were hitting .252 with a .812 OPS in 486 plate appearances against right-handers.

“It’s a problem that we have to solve,” Kapler said of the lack of success against lefties.

Including its 9-4 loss to the Mets on Thursday, San Francisco has now not won a series since it took two of three games from the Chicago White Sox from April 3-6.

At 6-13, the Giants’ record is tied for the second-worst in the National League, bettering only the 6-15 Colorado Rockies. The Washington Nationals improved to 6-13 with a 3-2 win over the Minnesota Twins on Friday.

The question is now — when is it no longer early in a full Major League Baseball season?

After one month? Six weeks? Memorial Day?

Whatever the case may be, the Giants now have to go 84-59 just to reach 90 wins this season. In 2022, the Philadelphia Phillies, at 87-75, had the worst record of any NL team to make the playoffs.

Does Kapler worry about falling too far below .500?

“No, not from a record standpoint,” he said. “I definitely expect us to play better baseball going forward. That’s not negotiable. We have to do that to be competitive in our division. But no, I’m not concerned about where we are today on the (21st) day of April.

“We have not played good baseball to this point. I’m just not focused on how many games we’ve won as the main thing.”

DeSclafani agreed.

“It’d be nice to be playing a little bit better baseball and stringing some wins together,” he said. “But Kap’s right. It’s April 21. We need to obviously get going but there’s a lot of baseball left. There’s no reason to dwell on (the record) just yet.”

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One of the bright spots for the Giants was seeing outfielder Brett Wisely pick up his first big league hit, a single to left in the third inning. Wisely had been 0-for-7 with three strikeouts over four games up until that point.

“It felt like a weight off my shoulders,” Wisely said. “I felt like I was pressing so much the last two games. To get my first one out of the way felt pretty good.”

Wisely was going through his phone after the game, and said he had received dozens of text messages.

“I’ve probably got like 50 in there from everybody,” Wisely, 23, said. “From people in elementary school, people I went to college with. It’s wild seeing everybody pop up in my phone.”