By Morris Phillips

SAN FRANCISCO–For Brandon Belt, the cool ocean air and adoring fans along McCovey Cove made all the difference. Stuck in a nasty post All-Star Game slump, the first baseman responded upon returning to AT&T Park with three hits, including a seemingly effortless, two-run homer.

For the rest of the Giants, Monday’s narrow 7-5 loss to the Reds was maddening, a rerun of most of the issues that plagued them on the just-concluded 1-7 road trip that’s all but eroded their comfortable lead in the NL West.

Balls flying over the fence? Three of them, all charged to starter Jake Peavy. Poor defense? Defender extraordinaire Brandon Crawford fumbled a ground ball, then threw wide to first, his improbable fifth error in the last seven games. Heads up play? Not enough of that either: Ramiro Pena wandered too far from first base and was picked off when Cincinnati’s Brandon Phillips wormed his way between Pena and the bag as catcher Tyler Barnhart’s throw arrived.

The home team’s fans were off their game too. A guy wearing a Giants’ jersey and armed with a glove reached over the rim of the right field arcade and snagged Jay Bruce’s first of two homers, a two-run shot that likely would have gone for three bases, not four, had the fan shown restraint.

So what’s it going to take for the Giants—21-7 before the break, and now 1-8 after it, to reignite their engines?

“Right now, we just need a quality start,” manager Bruce Bochy admitted.

Peavy seemed capable of giving the Giants what they needed, but didn’t have it on Monday. The veteran starter has won twice as much after the break than before over the last three seasons, and had never lost to a visiting Cincinnati ball club in his career (4-0 with 50 strikeouts in seven starts). But capturing that synergy would have first required that the Reds forget how pleasurable it was seeing Peavy at Great American Ballpark in May.

In that one, Peavy went six innings, departing after allowing four home runs, and leaving the Giants in a 7-2 hole. On Monday, Peavy gave up three home runs, the last one to Bruce, allowing the Reds to regain the lead after the Giants had scored four times to go ahead 5-4.

Talk about an extension of the road trip: the Giants’ pitchers have allowed 19 home runs in the last nine games.  And that four-run comeback might be all the offense the team can muster right now: over the final four innings Monday, the Giants had one hit and stuck out five times.

After the game, Bochy remained upbeat, finding a silver lining.

“Jake gives up six runs. He only gave up four hits, three of them left the park. That’s what power will do for you. They played hard, I loved the vibe in the dugout. Good comeback off a tough pitcher who’s been throwing the ball well. We just couldn’t hold ‘em,” Bochy said.

Belt’s home run answered the four-spot the Reds posted in the fourth. The slugger’s bust out night came after he went 2 for 33 on the road trip, and was dropped to sixth in the batting order on Monday in hopes that he would feel less pressure to carry the club offensively, according to Bochy.

Angel Pagan’s two-run shot in the fifth briefly gave the Giants a 5-4 lead, but Peavy’s final pitch of the evening was deposited over the left field fence by Bruce. The Cincinnati outfielder has been mentioned as a trade target of the Giants, and his latest stretch explains why. Bruce has 10 hits, 13 RBIs and four homers in his last seven games, that despite the persistent trade rumors that have him moving who knows where before the August 1 deadline.

“I feel like personally I have been pretty good at keeping things in their own little boxes,” Bruce said. “The last thing you want to do is let things creep in that affect performance or preparation or execution or focus.”

On Tuesday, the Giants will take aim at 23-year old Cody Reed, the Reds’ starter who is 0-4 in six starts. Matt Cain will go for the Giants, looking to have a far better outing than he did in Boston last week, where he was lifted in the third inning of an 11-7 loss.