Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Adams (18) follows though on a solo-home run in the fourth inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants Thursday, June 22, 2017, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

By Jeremy Harness

 The Giants endured a rain delay of nearly an hour and a half on Thursday and gave a very good account of themselves from an offensive standpoint, but their pitching woes reared their ugly heads again to dump the Giants.

 The pitching gave up the bank once again, and despite a furious comeback by the Giants, it cost them in the end, as they concluded a road trip that saw them lose six of the seven games away from AT&T Park with a 12-11 loss to the Atlanta Braves inside of SunTrust Field.

 Matt Cain (3-7) is looking more and more like a guy who is seeing his days as a starting pitcher being numbered with each start. He surrendered seven runs on 10 hits over only four innings before being taken out due to sheer ineffectiveness.

 On the plus side, Kyle Crick made his major-league debut on Thursday and fared very well in the process. He gave up only one hit and pitched 2 1/3 innings. By then, however, the damage had already been done, as the Giants had already given up 12 runs.

 Several Giants had multi-hit games on Thursday, and Buster Posey had three hits, including a solo homer in the second inning off Atlanta starter Jaime Garcia. Posey, who played first base on Thursday while Nick Hundley was behind the plate, also touched Braves pitching with a pair of doubles and drove in three runs.

 Now that the miserable road trip is over, the Giants will now head back home in time for a three-game series with the New York Mets, with Ty Blach (4-4) taking the hill for them in the opener, in the hope of getting his team back on track.

 Johnny Cueto will face a stern challenge on Saturday, as he will take on Mets star Jacob DeGrom, while the struggling Matt Moore will take the ball for Sunday’s series finale before the Colorado Rockies come to town for a three-game series.