LOS ANGELES — In their first draft under president of baseball operations Buster Posey, the Giants went out of their way to take contact hitters. A few weeks later, they took the same approach to the trade deadline.

The goal is to one day have more balance, to feature a lineup that includes free-swinging sluggers but also ancillary pieces that can keep a rally moving with a well-placed ball in play. The problem for the Giants is it might be years before the changes behind the scenes are seen on the field, and right now they still have a group that can seem stuck in the mud far too often. 

That’s never been more apparent than in the seventh inning Thursday.

After failing to score any of the six runners who drew a walk from Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the Giants went walk, walk, strikeout, walk, walk, strikeout, strikeout in the seventh against right-handers Michael Kopech and Blake Treinen. With the game, and possibly their slim playoff hopes, on the line, nobody could put one in the gap, or find grass in front of an outfielder, or even hit a sacrifice fly. 

Nobody could do that all night, really. The lineup managed just one hit and wasted 10 walks and a stellar performance from Logan Webb, losing 2-1 and falling three games (plus the tiebreaker) behind the New York Mets with nine to go. 

“We put pressure on them. We just couldn’t get a hit,” manager Bob Melvin said. “That’s happened for us some this year. We certainly made their guys work, made their starter throw a lot of pitches, got him out after 5 1/3 and usually we do a little damage off the bullpen. We couldn’t do it other than drawing some walks and we couldn’t get a big hit.”

The lineup struck out 14 times, including six times in the last three innings. The two biggest ones came from two guys in the heart of the lineup. 

With the bases loaded in a 2-1 game, Willy Adames took a 2-2 sinker at the top of the zone that the Dodgers wanted. It was close, and the 3-2 pitch was just as close at the bottom of the zone. That one was called a strike as Adames protested. Matt Chapman then struck out swinging, stranding the three runners. 

“That’s why guys hit in the middle of the lineup. It just didn’t happen tonight,” Melvin said. “It’s frustrating. We had traffic all night long and you’d think we’d get one or two (home). Especially with Webby doing what he’s doing on the mound, we saw a lot of pitches and had a lot of traffic, but couldn’t get a hit, couldn’t get a big hit.”

Melvin called it a “Jekyll and Hyde” situation, and that’s really been the case the entire second half. The Giants were historically bad for several weeks and then turned into the best offense in baseball once everyone wrote them off. With a chance to catch the sliding Mets over the last week, they once again have gone silent. 

Incredibly, the Giants still might have found a way to win this one, but they gave a run away in the bottom of the sixth. With two in scoring position and one out, Mookie Betts hit a grounder to Adames, who threw a perfect strike to the plate. Patrick Bailey — who had the night’s only hit — dropped the ball as he tried to put down the tag. A Freddie Freeman single made it a two-run inning.

Bailey said there was no excuse. Webb made a good pitch and Adames made a great throw, he said. 

“I dropped the ball,” Bailey said, “Which is unacceptable.”

 That whole sequence from the bottom of the sixth through the top of the seventh wasted a bounceback performance from Webb, who allowed two runs — one earned — in seven innings and threw 103 pitches on a muggy night at Dodger Stadium. After throwing just eight sinkers last Saturday, he went back to his roots Thursday, firing sinkers and changeups at the Dodgers, who had just five hits of their own. 

“He was fantastic,” Melvin said. “He deserved to win that game.”

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